At a time when the City of Vancouver is doling out a hefty increase in property taxes, a freedom of information request has revealed a gold-plated contract for the city's new Chief Financial Officer Patrice Impey.

Impey will get the equivalent of 10 weeks paid vacation, a pension based on 20 years of service, and a salary at the very top of the range for her job -- $223,969.

Even though she only started at city hall on Thursday and all of her experience is in the private sector, Patrice Impey is getting the same benefit package as someone who has worked as a civil servant in Vancouver for 20 years.

She will also qualify for a full one-year salary after three months if she is released for any reason.

Municipal blogger Mike Klassen of citycaucus.com filed the FOI request after getting a tip about the new CFO's package.

"We ended up getting it on Friday and it almost fell out of our hands, we couldn't believe what we were seeing," Klassen said.

Klassen says her salary is going to raise the eyebrows of Vancouver taxpayers, who are already bracing for a hefty hike of their property taxes.

"The city taxpayers who just received the largest residential tax increase in history at eight percent are gonna have to pay for it," Klassen said.

But Vancouver's mayor, Gregor Robertson, insists she's worth the high price tag.

"This is someone with extraordinary experience and we have to pay them accordingly," Gregor Robertson said.

Robertson admits he doesn't get 10 weeks of holiday and that Impey deserves the benefits of someone with many more years of experience despite only starting this week.

"Well, she's coming in with a lifetime of senior level experience mostly in the private sector which is very competitive," Robertson said.

"She's actually taking a pay cut I understand to work for the city of Vancouver."

The news comes just after finding out the former CFO, Estelle Lo, was given a $450,000 compensation package from the city in March.

Lo was said to have "resigned" following word of Olympic Village financial problems back in the fall. Almost $200,000 of the compensation is for unused vacation time.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Shannon Paterson