Spin doctors. Turd polishers. Spinmeisters. Brainwashers. Messagemakers. Mouthpieces.

They have lots of nicknames, but governments call them “communications staff.” And the City of Vancouver has a whack of them.

The Georgia Straight has a story on a Freedom of Information request for Vancouver’s communications staff and spending. It’s not pretty for Vancouver taxpayers. From the Straight:

The City of Vancouver spent $2.2 million on spin doctors in 2013.

That’s according to data obtained through a freedom of information request and supplied to the Straight by the citizen-run website CityHallWatch.

The money was paid to 40 employees whose titles indicate they performed communications work for the city, the park board, or Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services. (The FOI response excludes information related to the police department.)

The highest paid spokesperson was Dale Booth, who held the rank of assistant chief for emergency communications before he was appointed assistant chief for operations. Booth was paid $145,045.

Not far behind him was Mairi Welman. She earned $131,354 in 2013 before taking a job with the District of North Vancouver.

The only other spokesperson to earn six figures was Joyce Courtney, former manager of communications for the park board (since retired); she made $112,447.

Kevin Quinlan, the mayor’s director of policy and communications, earned $72,656, up from $66,306 in 2012.

How does that compare to the salaries of the ink-stained wretches the comms folks are paid to massage? The Straight has that too:

According to an August 2013 report by the Globe and Mail, a Canadian journalist’s starting salary is between $25,000 and $40,000 a year. It's noted there that that can grow to six figures, if a reporter eventually moves up to the position of editor-in-chief at one of the country’s larger publications.

Earlier this year, the CTF got ahold of federal government numbers: Taxpayers spend more than a quarter billion dollars on communications folks there.