Travel crackdown comes at a time of budget pressures and a week after revelations about Invest Vancouver trip to attend conference in Lisbon
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Metro Vancouver has halted all out-of-province travel by regional district staff for professional development purposes, amid pressure to tighten its budget and amid revelations of apparently lavish trips by some members of the staff.
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Jerry Dobrovolny, regional district administrative director, ordered a pause in professional development trips in an email to all staff Wednesday to “ensure the efficient use of all funds and potential savings.”
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The email also comes a week after revelations of an early November trip to an Internet conference in Lisbon by a staffer at Metro's Invest Vancouver economic development agency were reported by Global News.
The staffer was part of the Vancouver delegation to the Web Summit, also known as Collision, which will be held in Vancouver in 2025 and Metro said the trip fell within the organization's mandate. Half the cost was covered by federal funding. But it is the latest move by Metro members that critics have called excessive.
Metro spokesperson Amanda McCuaig said the regional district “significantly reduced” staff travel starting in July when Metro board chair Mike Hurley, mayor of Burnaby, called for the cessation of international travel by elected officials.
This was after Hurley and three other Metro mayors went to an international wastewater conference in Amsterdam, despite revelations that Metro's new wastewater treatment plant on the North Bank had become a wastewater mess. almost 4 billion dollars.
“That's part of it is being mindful of the decisions we make on things that might be considered discretionary spending,” McCuaig said. “We need to make sure people have their (professional) accreditation, (but we need to) be thoughtful about how we support that professional development. »
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In his email, Dobrovolny said that for this year, staff travel was limited to trips already booked for conferences as part of professional development, where staff were invited as presenters or when staff participated in activities which improve “competence in the management of critical emergencies”. operational events.
“As we approach the new year, I continue to review requests and opportunities for professional development and will continue to authorize travel only under careful consideration and for critical or essential purposes,” Dobrovolny wrote.
For this reason, he said Metro would pause any travel outside of British Columbia for professional development purposes and that travel “for any other purpose will require significant justification and my personal approval and approval.”
McCuaig did not immediately have a figure on how much savings a pause would provide, but in the past Metro was able to send one to 12 representatives to key infrastructure-related conferences.
She added that despite the pause, Metro has a policy that limits how often staff members travel for conferences to balance professional development opportunities allocated to individuals.
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However, the Water Environment Federation's annual technical expo and conference, held this year in New Orleans, is a conference Metro often sends speakers to, McCuaig said. An organization called the International Association for Public Participation is another.
In his email, Dobrovolny said Metro is “deeply aware” of its financial challenges, “especially as our organization undertakes its largest investment plan in Metro Vancouver’s history.”
“At the same time, it is extremely difficult to respond and meet the requirements of these many large-scale projects while simultaneously trying to minimize the financial impact on our region,” Dobrovolny said.
Metro's board of directors, at its October meeting, approved a 2025 budget that included a tax increase of nearly 10 percent, over the objections of North Shore board representatives.
North Vancouver City Mayor Linda Buchanan said the increase “could push many families to their breaking point.”
With that in mind, McCuaig said Metro staff is reviewing every line item in its 2026 budget. Its financial plan calls for a five percent increase for 2026, but “we have a very aggressive goal of keeping that increase as low as possible.” .
“We really want the number to be even lower than that,” she added.
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