If there were a prize awarded to the member of Vancouver city council who has disclosed the most “gifts” received while on the job this year, Sarah Kirby-Yung would win it hands down.
The ABC Vancouver councillor had filed 29 separate disclosure forms on the city’s website as of Thursday, with her party colleague Lenny Zhou a distant second with 19 filings in 2025.
“Being out in the community as a whole is really important, and that's where I actually have some of my best conversations,” Kirby-Yung said. “You hear what's really going on, like, if they're having challenges with how easy it is for permitting for festivals and to put things together.”
Some of Kirby-Yung’s gifts this year included:
• a $695 ticket from the Vancouver Art Gallery to attend the Vancouver Symphony Gala-The Power of Music April 3.
• a $200 ticket from Rifflandia Entertainment Co. to attend the Juno Awards March 30.
• a pair of tickets worth $250 from Ballet BC to attend ZENITH March 6.
• a pair of tickets worth $197 from Dance House to attend Sankofa Danzafro’s The City of Others (La Ciudad de les Ostros) on Feb. 21.
• a pair of tickets worth $100 from PuSh International Performing Arts Festival to attend the performance of Bogota.
• a pair of tickets from Dance House worth $197 to attend Peeping Tom’s Diptych April 26.
• a pair of tickets from Ballet BC worth $190 to attend the company’s studio rehearsal of DUSK May 1.
Kirby-Yung’s interest in entertainment was mixed with attending events such as the 2025 Zero Waste Conference (ticket valued at $288.75 from Metro Vancouver), the Home Demolition Waste Prevention Forum (ticket valued at $288.75 from Renewal Development) and a “Future of Housing” event (ticket valued at $300 from Urban Development Institute).
In some cases, such as at the forum dealing with demolition waste, Kirby-Yung spoke and chaired a panel in her capacity as an elected official. Still, the rules governing council state a disclosure must be filed.
Which was the case for some of Mayor Ken Sim’s filings, where he was in his capacity as “host mayor” at Invictus Games events in February.
The mayor also dropped the puck at the Vancouver Canucks' lunar new year game Jan. 21, where he was given a jersey from Michael Doyle, president of the Canucks' business operations. Sim estimated the value of the jersey at $500.
'Protocol obligations'
Both Kirby-Yung and Sim — along with other members of council who filed disclosures — stuck to a common sentence in their forms to explain why they accepted gifts: “Personal benefit received as an incident of the protocol obligations that normally accompany the responsibilities of office.”
As a rule, council has to disclose gifts valued at more than $50 and file it with the city clerk’s office within 30 days of receiving a gift or personal benefit. Up until late last year, records of what council received was only available in a binder in the clerk’s office.
City staff decided in late 2024 to post the disclosures online and include them in the biography section of each politician’s profile. The public can now easily view what the mayor and each councillor disclose as gifts.
“To ensure transparency, gift disclosures for mayor and council will be proactively released quarterly moving forward,” said the city in a previous email to BIV. “If there are no items displayed in the drop-down [menu], that means the members had none to disclose.”
The city’s definition of a gift or personal benefit, as described in the code of conduct bylaw, is: “An item or service of value that is received by a member for their personal use including money, gift cards, tickets to events, clothing, jewelry, pens, food or beverages, discount/rebates on personal purchases, entertainment, participation in sport and recreation activities, and invitations to social functions.”
Yo-Yo Ma, Fish Leong
The one council member who has not — so far — disclosed anything this year is Coun. Brian Montague, who only filed one disclosure in 2024. That was for Festival of Lights at VanDusen Botanical Garden Dec. 30; the park board gifted Montague four tickets worth $112.
Asked via text message whether he doesn’t like to attend events, Montague said: “I do go to [fewer] events than others. I typically don’t go to an event unless I pay for the ticket out of my own pocket.”
Zhou’s 19 disclosure forms included attending a variety of cost-free events, including a Yo-Yo Ma and Fish Leong concert courtesy of Vancouver Civic Theatres (pair of tickets valued at $320 and $308, respectively, for each performance).
Zhou also attended the same Canucks game as the mayor (pair of tickets worth $470, gifted by Aquilini Group), went to the Junos ($200 ticket courtesy of City of Vancouver) and attended Dan Brown’s Wild Symphony (pair of tickets worth $72 from Vancouver Civic Theatres).
The Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver gifted Zhou a pair of tickets worth $36 for Israel’s 77th Independence Day community celebration.
Pixies, Shakespeare, Nikki Glaser
Here are some of the other cost-free events councillors have attended this year:
• Coun. Sean Orr accepted a pair of tickets worth $179 from Vancouver Civic Theatres to the Pixies concert.
• Coun. Lisa Dominato accepted a pair of tickets worth $127.80 from Christopher Gaze, the artistic director of Bard on the Beach, to the performance of The Two Gentlemen of Verona.
• Coun. Pete Fry accepted a pair of tickets worth $300 from the Vancouver Art Gallery to attend “art party and opening.”
• Coun. Mike Klassen accepted one ticket worth $586.48 from the Juno Awards to attend the event’s reception and awards gala.
• Coun. Lucy Maloney accepted a $149 ticket from the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade to attend the annual address to the board by representatives of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations.
• Coun. Peter Meiszner requested two tickets worth $139.50 from Vancouver Civic Theatres to see comedian Nikki Glaser.
• Coun. Rebecca Bligh accepted a $150 ticket from Coast Mental Health to attend the Courage to Come Back Awards.
