Metro Vancouver’s board of directors has decided to halt, for now, an independent review into how the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant went $3 billion over budget.
The board announced the review as an accountability measure last year when the updated budget for the project triggered a deluge of blowback for the regional authority. North Shore taxpayers are seeing their sewage bills go up by about $590 for the next 30 years just to cover the cost overruns.
On Friday afternoon, Metro issued a release saying its review would not proceed until after Metro Vancouver’s lawsuit with former contractor Acciona is resolved. It isn’t scheduled to go to trial until March 2027.
“After careful consideration, the board has decided the public interest is best served by resolving the legal dispute with the previous contractor before undertaking the review,” said Metro Vancouver board chair Mike Hurley in the release.
Acciona is suing Metro for more than $250 million for breaches of contractual obligations, including wrongfully terminating the project agreement. Metro is countersuing for more than $1 billion alleging Acciona is responsible for “material” breaches of the design-build contract.
Randal Kaardal, a senior lawyer with Hunter Litigation Chambers and the person charged with overseeing the now-paused review, was also quoted in Metro’s Friday afternoon release.
“The litigation is a public process, and once the dispute with the former contractor has been resolved, the Metro Vancouver Board and the reviewer would be in a better position to complete a review on any outstanding questions,” he said.
North Vancouver councillor calls decision BS
District of North Vancouver Coun. Catherine Pope, who has been one of the most outspoken advocates for transparency and accountability on the wastewater fiasco, called the decision “bullshit.”
“Oh my god, you’re joking,” she said. “I’m calling BS on that. That is not in the public interest to delay this any longer.”
Pope said she’s always acknowledged that, because of the lawsuits, some things would be “out of bounds” from any review or public disclosure. But, she added, the region’s residents who continue to pay the costs deserve to know how those decisions were made now.
“What we’re looking for here is the processes that Metro uses and the way its governance functions are not working, clearly. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be in this mess,” she said. “How did this get so out of control? That’s why I don’t think that that we need to wait for the lawsuits. If we do, they’ll be settled out of court, quietly. We’ll never know what went wrong or who did what, and we’ll never get any answers. They’ll all sign [non-disclosure agreements] and that’s probably what they’re aiming for right now.”
Pope said this is another sign that the province must pull rank and force transparency out of the board “to ensure that Metro Vancouver is using taxpayers’ dollars effectively.”
“I think it’s just another tactic to block any kind of truth finding, and it’s just totally unacceptable,” she said.
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