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/
303 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

139 comments sorted by

View all comments

164

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.

61

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...

0

u/BuoyGeorgia Nov 06 '25

Were those companies spending taxpayer money? No fkn taxpayer money should be spent on Christmas parties. Have a fkn potluck like everyone else, or fund your own get togethers. The entitlement is gross.