In my conversations, I have found that many people do not realize the power and responsibility of a City Manager in municipal government. They essentially serve as the CEO of the City.
In the case of the City of Vancouver, the City Manager directly oversees the day-to-day operations and direction of the municipality — a workforce of roughly 9,500 staff and an annual operating budget of about $2.2 billion — and turns the priorities of Vancouver City Council into action.
The position reports directly to the Mayor and City Council, who effectively can be likened to the chair and board of directors of the organization.
For this reason, with such immense obligations, the City Manager is the highest-paid bureaucrat in any municipal government. The buck stops with them.
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The recent sudden departure of Paul Mochrie from this pivotal position after more than four years was significant. His years of service through some of the City’s most challenging periods, particularly the height of the impacts from the pandemic, should not be overlooked.
Starting today, filling in this crucial role is Donny van Dyk, who is coming from his prior experience as the City Manager of the City of Delta, and previously the City Manager of the City of Penticton. He also has a background in energy infrastructure and Indigenous relations.
But the task before van Dyk is no small one.
Vancouver is not a small suburban municipality, but a major city at the very core of British Columbia’s economy, business community, and culture — with a municipal government defined by complex systems, all set against the backdrop of a diverse and multifaceted civic identity.
This is one of the most diverse cities in North America, and our municipal government has the opportunity to reflect that richness more fully — in its leadership, hiring practices, and service delivery. By moving beyond siloed and contemporary Euro-centric approaches, the City can create policies that better reflect and respond to the lived experiences of all its residents.
Van Dyk notably brings fresh eyes and perspective; he is the first person to be appointed to this role from outside the ranks of Vancouver City Hall since 2008, with subsequent internal appointments in 2015 and 2021.
The challenge facing Vancouver’s new City Manager goes beyond administration — it is transformational. He needs to unite City departments around a shared urgency to confront the City’s most pressing issues, while fine-tuning the cogs and gears of the municipal machine for efficiency and carving out space for innovation.
Vancouver needs a civic culture that is more responsive, proactive, results-driven, and inclusive of a broader range of ideas and priorities. The overarching responsibilities directly within the City’s control must serve as its guiding north star.
The next six months will be critical.
Van Dyk steps into his new role with a crowded agenda and the challenge of proving to Vancouverites that he is the right leader at the right time. To build public trust, his first moves will matter.
Other than internal City reforms, the key priorities should include working with elected officials to modernize housing policies to support growth, cutting red tape and reducing the City’s regulatory costs on construction and business, and unlocking underused industrial lands for housing and job creation. Van Dyk must also scrutinize operating and capital budgets to rein in spending and ease pressure on property taxes, while addressing public safety concerns in and around downtown Vancouver and in other neighbourhoods and districts across the city.
Vancouver is now less than a year away from hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup. While the City’s direct costs of hosting the tournament are in fact quite minimal — with the overwhelming majority of the expenses covered by the temporary municipal hotel sales tax on visitors, running from 2023 to at least 2030 — the true legacy and value of the tournament will hinge on public perception.
The success of the FIFA World Cup will be judged not only by whether local businesses benefit from the promised influx of visitors, but also by whether residents — many without tickets to the matches — feel included in the spirit of the event through public activations, at least in part like how the 2010 Winter Olympics briefly transformed the city into an electric village.
The responsibility for making the FIFA World Cup a real and perceived success rests heavily with the City of Vancouver. Unlike the Olympics, 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, and 2024 Invictus Games, the municipal government itself is serving as the local organizing committee.
Overall, the City’s focus and mandate must be reframed to support the economy and businesses — historically a weak point for Vancouver, marked by an anti-business culture and a lack of economic and business literacy. This is especially evident when compared to counterparts in Seattle, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, and even Surrey, which is actively positioning itself to outcompete Vancouver in the region for investment, talent, business activity, and residents.
Economic and business concerns must be treated as paramount. The City needs to shift from its existing climate-first lens to one where economic growth and business vitality shape every decision — areas where it comparatively has far more direct influence, and can make an exponentially greater positive impact for its residents and businesses.
On the other side of the coin, soaring housing and living costs have outpaced income growth, eroding disposable incomes and constraining Vancouver’s potential for a truly great urban experience. But affordability cannot be solved without also addressing the deep crisis of economic opportunity.
That potential is further undermined when major public safety concerns overshadow daily life in parts of the city, eroding trust and violating the government’s social contract with hard-working, law-abiding, tax-paying residents and business owners.
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