The North Shore Wastewater plant fiasco demands an inquiry, Metro Vancouver reform, and a stronger voice from West Vancouver
It is astonishing that West Vancouver is not leading the charge to find out how the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant ballooned from $700 million to $3.86 billion.
Residents here and across the North Shore now face decades of annual charges of hundreds, and in many cases thousands, of dollars to cover a major share of this project. And we still do not know what it will cost to decommission the existing plant.
Yet our mayor and council have largely stood back while the City and District of North Vancouver have been more forceful in demanding answers. There has been no resolution from West Vancouver calling for an independent inquiry, and little sense of urgency about the largest public-cost blowout this region has ever seen.
When I first reported in September 2023 that the project was approaching $4 billion, the mayor dismissed that reporting as inaccurate. Months later, it was confirmed.
Now Metro Vancouver and its fired original contractor are in mediation. One risk is obvious: that the dispute gets tidied up behind closed doors while the public is denied a real accounting of how this happened. An earlier inquiry was shelved over claims it might interfere with litigation, despite legal opinion that this was unnecessary. Since then, the pattern has been delay, defensiveness, and silence.
As we approach an election, residents deserve accountability, not avoidance. How did this happen? Who failed? What changes will ensure it does not happen again? And why has West Vancouver not been more vocal in demanding those answers?
Metro Vancouver also needs reform. It cannot go on operating like four overlapping entities with a sprawling committee structure and blurred responsibility. It needs clearer governance, clearer executive accountability, and a stronger administrative backbone. If Metro Vancouver will not fix itself, the provincial government should step in and force the issue.
West Vancouver should be leading this fight, not trailing it.
I have also said that, unlike my opponent in this mayoral race, I would not take extra compensation to sit on Metro Vancouver. Residents already elect you, and already pay you, to represent them there. Public office should not come with a second paycheque for doing the job you were elected to do.