The coast is clear. The questions remain. The answers are needed.
A mediated settlement was announced Wednesday between Metro Vancouver and Acciona, the original contractor of the North Shore Wastewater Treatment plant. That has rid elected officials of the last reason (if there ever was one) to stall an independent inquiry into the project’s runaway costs.
A quick history: What was once a $700 million project sprawled into a $3.86 billion one with no public explanation as it grew. In the process, Acciona was fired and a lawsuit and a countersuit ensued. Once we knew the new cost, Metro Vancouver came under public pressure to explain the enlarged expense. It at first balked at an inquiry, set up one that was quickly shelved, then agreed to launch something approaching a real one, then called it off and cited the pre-existing litigation.
West Vancouver property owners will pay dearly for the next three decades for the new plant. Homeowners in the district will face an average $1,400 annual bill, depending on the assessed value of their property, on top of what is already paid in local property tax and utilities. (It should be noted, because it seems lost in the details, that business owners will be paying 2.45 times what residential property owners will pay.)
Mayor and council ought to have led the charge to at least help us understand how the costs soared, not to mention how leadership let it happen without alerting us along the way.
In September 2023, thanks to an informant’s tip, I was able to first report on the new cost. The mayor said the figure was inaccurate. Several months later, Metro Vancouver confirmed it. So much for misinformation.
But ever since, it has been the leadership in neighbouring municipalities on the North Shore at the forefront of calling for an inquiry. Our leadership has been eerily quiet on the overruns on the largest financial project in the region’s history.
With the settlement, it is clearly time to reignite the inquiry and deliver answers to the many questions we have on the decisions and processes that created such scandal. It is a hopeful sign that Metro Vancouver chair Mike Hurley has indicated today the inquiry will at last start its work. It was unnecessary to halt the probe in the first place.
Of course, we cannot expect to get the answers we need before the October 17 election.
The inquiry needs to demonstrate independence of institutional self-protection. It needs to assign responsibility. It has to restore public trust in Metro Vancouver governance. Decisions were made before, during and after Acciona. A settlement is not an explanation.
And to be clear: the $235 million settlement included $100 million in expenses Acciona will no longer claim and a $50 million performance bond Metro Vancouver earlier cashed, so there is only about $85 million in new money in this. By my reckoning, there is $3 billion to be explained.
It is not too late to gain accountability and to fight for a different deal for local property owners on this project, including a different share of costs and a different amortization of them. We will also need an explanation in advance of the cost of decommissioning the existing treatment plant.
As mayor, I’ll be a champion of transparency, disclosure and accountability. I raised the awareness of the story and I would finish the job by getting the answers we need.