The City of Vancouver recently revealed its workforce size, and the large number of staff has some people scratching their heads.
Vancouver posted on X in response to inaccurate media reports that suggested City staff had grown from 1,200 to 9,000 between 2008 and now, including 700 staff working on climate change.
In its post correcting those reports, the City said it employs over 9,000 people, a jump from 7,001 in 2008.
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The City of Vancouver employs 9,500 people, including 40 staff members who work directly on climate and sustainability issues.
The 9,500 figure also excludes Vancouver Police Department (VPD) and Vancouver Public Library (VPL) employees.
There are 40 City staff who work directly on climate & sustainability, but many others do work that is related to or responds to the effects of climate change —like engineers, urban foresters, & facilities managers —in addition to work they do outside of the City’s climate work.
— City of Vancouver (@CityofVancouver) December 18, 2024
The numbers align with a recent report from Statistics Canada, which suggested that while some sectors are seeing job losses, public administration is one of the sectors that saw gains this past October.
“In October, monthly payroll employment declines were recorded in seven out of 20 sectors, led by manufacturing (-5,900; -0.4%), professional, scientific and technical services (-3,700; -0.3%) and accommodation and food services (-3,500; -0.3%),” the report states.
“The declines in October were partially offset by gains in retail trade (+4,200; +0.2%), construction (+3,400; +0.3%), public administration (+3,300; +0.3%) and health care and social assistance (+3,300; +0.1%). The remaining nine sectors were little changed.”
Vancouver staff count leaves many surprised
Vancouver City Hall. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
In response to the post on X, many were taken aback by the number of staff the City of Vancouver employs.
“Lol, 9,500 employees seems a bit unnecessary,” one X user responded.
“That’s an insanely high number,” another user said.
“In the past 10 years, the quality and quantity of services has lessened dramatically while our tax bill rises every year,” they added.
Way too many?
— a localite (@ALocalite) December 18, 2024
Some took issue with the fact that 40 people are dedicated to climate change.
40 staff directly on climate is unbelievable. What are they doing that requires so many staff? This must be costing millions. This could be an office of a dozen people, max, to design policy. No way it has to be 40 full time staffers.
— Dave 🫤🤔😬 (@VanPoliMorphus) December 19, 2024
How does Vancouver compare to other cities?
The original temporary “TORONTO” sign at Nathan Phillips Square outside Toronto City Hall during the 2015 Pan American Games. (Unit 11)
Looking at other cities reveals that Vancouver isn’t alone in terms of high staff counts. According to the City of Edmonton, the city manager leads “more than 10,000 employees who provide a range of services.”
However, Edmonton does have a significantly larger population than Vancouver. Calgary also employs more people (13,057) than Vancouver, another Albertan city with a larger population than Vancouver.
Toronto, with a much bigger population than Vancouver, employs around 43,000 active public service employees.
In response to some of the commentary, the City of Vancouver provided some numbers to Daily Hive, including that it delivers and maintains “hundreds of assets as part of a $30 billion infrastructure portfolio.”
“As a regional hub, Vancouver delivers an outsized amount of social services, with 25% of the region’s overall population delivering over 75% of the region’s shelter spaces, over 77% of the region’s supportive housing units, and 50% of the region’s social housing, all which have staffing demands.”
It also added that Vancouver is a destination city with over 240 parks and over 11 km of staffed public beaches.
Do you think Vancouver’s staffing levels are too high compared to other cities? Give us your take in the comments.
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- This is the proposed mixed-use development concept for transforming Vancouver City Hall into "Civic District"
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- Vancouver will remain BC's most populated city for decades to come: forecast
- Metro Vancouver civic jobs that pay pretty, pretty, pretty well
- Opinion: The growth of the City of Vancouver's bureaucracy is out of control