Pricey travel raises new questions at Metro Vancouver agency – BC

There are renewed calls for the Metro Vancouver Regional District’s Invest Vancouver division to be shuttered.

It comes following the results of a freedom of information request.

The FOI shows that in 2023 Invest Vancouver staff went on 17 trips.

Among the destinations were Paris, London, Vienna, Lisbon, Barcelona, Frankfurt and Brisbane.

Expenses included $5,550 for a five-night hotel stay, laundry charges of $587.66, French language training cost $1,250 and a Metro Vancouver networking event was $1,102.84.

New Westminster City Councillor Daniel Fontaine made the FOI request.

“I think it’s time for Metro Vancouver to shut this down along with a number of other initiatives that are costing regional taxpayers an arm and a leg,” he told Global News.

“When you look at the list of expenses I received it’s absolutely shocking to see some of the expenses.”

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Invest Vancouver president Jacquie Griffiths declined an interview, deferring to the board chair, Linda Buchanan.

Buchanan defended the expenses.

“Like any business that does work there are expenses that go along with it,” she said.

Invest Vancouver has a $4.7 million dollar budget and claims its work brought 134 new jobs to the region last year.

“For a program or service in its early infancy, I would say that is good value for the money,” Buchanan said.

Fontaine disagrees.

“If you do the math, that’s close to $37,000 dollars per job. In order to attract a job into Metro Vancouver that is not sustainable.”

The revelations come as Metro Vancouver faces a cost-saving mandate.

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