BURST
The salaries of Vancouver’s highest earners, including the police chief, city manager and mayor, all rose last year, while the city also paid out severance to an unusually high number of former employees.
The City of Vancouver released its annual statement of financial information Thursday, including the list of salaries of municipal workers and politicians.
Mayor Ken Sim earned a salary of $212,531 last year, and the city councillors each picked up between $108,129 and $127,367 (other than the two who only joined council partway through last year). The mayor’s salary last year was about 18 per cent more than that of his predecessor, Kennedy Stewart, in his last full year on the job, while councillors are now earning between 10 and 25 per cent more than their predecessors did five years ago.
The elected park board commissioners earned $21,157 each, with chairperson Laura Christensen earning a bit more, at $26,186.
Outside of the police department, the highest-paid municipal employee is typically the city manager. The current manager, Donny van Dyk, took over the role in September, at a reported salary of $450,000 per year, which is about 16 per cent more than his predecessor, Paul Mochrie, earned in his last full year on the job.
Here are the 2025 earnings of the rest of the city’s senior management team and top earners:
• CFO Colin Knight: $282,183
• Director of legal services and city solicitor Francie Connell: $345,842
• Deputy city manager Karen Levitt: $350,899
• Deputy city manager Sandra Singh: $345,728
• General manager of engineering services Lon LaClaire: $338,777
• Chief librarian Ben Hyman, who started the role last July: $131,072
• GM of development, buildings and licensing Corrie Okell: $285,125
• Deputy city manager Armin Amrolia: $340,026
• Fire Chief Karen Fry: $325,817
• Chief human resources officer Andrew Naklicki: $305,495
• Park board GM Steve Jackson: $310,706
• Acting GM of planning, urban design and sustainability Josh White: $315,532
• GM of arts, culture and community services Margaret Wittgens: $300,293
• Chief of external relations Maria Pontikis (who left the city earlier this year): $265,922
• Auditor General Mike Macdonell: $305,425
• Director of long-term financial strategy and treasury Grace Cheng: $374,684
Vancouver Police Department salaries aren’t included in the city’s statement of financial information, but the department also released its executive compensation information Thursday after a request. Former VPD chief Adam Palmer was the city’s highest-paid employee in 2024, earning $487,224. Palmer retired last April and was replaced by the current chief, Steve Rai.
Palmer’s salary was $520,555 for 2025, the new disclosure shows, while Rai’s was $457,597.
The VPD’s senior deputy chief, Howard Chow, had a salary of $370,796 for last year, while four other deputy chiefs each earned between $279,000 and $355,708.
The City of Vancouver entered into severance agreements with 79 former employees last year, which is more than double the number of the previous three years combined. City council directed staff last year to trim the budget to achieve a property tax freeze, and there has been a series of voluntary and involuntary departures since then.
The dollar figure for the severance payments isn’t included in the statement of financial information. The Globe and Mail reported last year that between late 2022 and mid-2025 the city had paid a little more than $2 million in severance payouts to 34 non-union employees.