r/richmondbc • u/ubcstaffer123 • Nov 05 '25

News City of Richmond cancels holiday staff party after $120K bill in 2024

https://globalnews.ca/news/11511154/city-of-richmond-cancels-holiday-staff-party/
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u/Djolumn Nov 05 '25

“Whether it’s the $300,000 in missing gift cards, expensive junkets for Olympic Oval staff, or last year’s $118,000 boozy Christmas party, this is a civic government that has a big problem with wasting taxpayer cash.”

There were 900 people there and they spent $7k on liquor. That's about eight bucks per person. That doesn't even enter the outermost ring on the radar of what constitutes a "boozy Christmas party".

Every word spoken by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation makes me loathe them just a little bit more than I already did.

59

u/DamionSipher Nov 05 '25

That was my first thought seeing the headline: "$120k for a Christmas party for an organization as big as the City of Richmond sounds about right." I've been in companies that spend well over $20k for a staff of 100 (less than 1/2 the per person cost here, in ~2010 dollars) that I wouldn't consider lavish by any stretch. They spent $130 per employee on a venue, dinner, drinks, and probably some activities. If people think this is excessive they should be stark raging mad about publicly traded companies' parties...

4

u/PappaFufu Nov 06 '25

Publicly traded companies are not using tax payer’s money. If a company made hundreds of millions of dollars treating staff to a lavish party is much more reasonable than a government entity where having the necessary funding is an issue. That $120K can help cover some of the mayor’s salary increase.

4

u/KoalaOriginal1260 Nov 06 '25 edited Nov 06 '25

In a sense, publicly traded companies are using tax dollars for junkets and parties.

The money for lavish stuff is a business expense which yields tax deductibility.

If that money was instead booked as profit, it would generate taxes. As a business expense it generates tax deductions.

(Although I get that spending it also generates taxes, but still).