The governance structure at Metro Vancouver is broken and needs to be fixed.
The board has been under intense scrutiny the past month or so for the ballooning costs of the North Shore wastewater treatment plant – which is facing a $3 billion cost overrun at the present time as well, travel costs of the board and whether in fact, travel junkets to other countries for conferences are still needed.
Delta Mayor George Harvie, who will be out as board chair later this month, due to Delta council removing him as the city's Metro representative, has been under fire for his travel expenses.
After being ambushed by media in the back parking lot of municipal hall following a recent council meeting, Harvie refused to answer questions. A day later, he issued a statement through Metro Vancouver that he was pulling out of the controversial trip to Amsterdam for an environmental conference.
You would think that would have been the end of this, but no. Instead of doing the ‘right thing’ and cancelling the trip outright, Mayors Mike Hurley of Burnaby, Brad West of Port Coquitlam, Malcolm Brodie of Richmond and John McEwen of Anmore, and three Metro staffers jetted off to the conference in what Meto said in a statement was a “beneficial learning opportunity” for the entire region.
Metro Van is so tone deaf about being fiscally responsible. If this was indeed a trip that had to be taken, why did seven people have to go? Why not send one and the other six could attend via Zoom?
In response to all of this, four municipal councillors across the Lower Mainland have called on Premier David Eby to initiate a full review of Metro Vancouver and, in the process, look at the possibility of residents having the power to elect its board members.
A full board review is clearly needed and Eby needs to make this happen.
The Metro Van board can not continue to operate with impunity like this at the detriment to its taxpayers.
