From: David Marley
Date: December 8, 2024
To: “Kahlon, MLA Hon. Ravi”
Cc: “Eby, MLA Premier David” , “Ma, MLA Hon. Bowinn” , “Rustad, MLA Hon. John”, “Luck, MLA Tony” , “Van Popta, MLA Misty” , “Block, MLA Lynne” , “Chant, MLA Susie” , “Valeroite, MLA Jeremy” , Hurley Mayor Michael , “Buchanan, Mayor Linda” , “Little, Mayor Mike” , “Sager, Mayor Mark” , Palmer Vaughn , News Global TV , News NS
Minister Kahlon:
I write to you on behalf of the North Shore Neighbourhoods Alliance (“NSNA”), www.nsna.ca, a coalition of eight community associations which collectively represent a great many of the people living in either North or West Vancouver.
According to recent news reports, in Paris, Notre Dame Cathedral has been magnificently restored within five years following a devastating fire, at an estimated cost of C$1.26 billion, and yet Metro Vancouver (“Metro”) is apparently going to need fifteen years, if not more, and the expenditure of more than three times as much money, and probably even more, to build a sewage treatment plant for a relatively small population. How can this be? Can a five-fold increase, to date, in the estimated capital cost of Metro’s NSWWTP project (“the project”), known locally not so affectionately as the ‘Poo Palace’, be the result of grotesque incompetence? If so, on whose part? Or is there something more sinister in the mix? Corruption perhaps? After all, such has not been unknown before in Canadian public sector construction projects. In any event, as the headline says on the accompanying NS News editorial, published on December 4, 2024, it’s time to ‘Flush it out’!
On July 2, 2024, on behalf of the NSNA, I wrote to the Inspector of Municipalities pursuant to section 764(1)(b) of the Local Government Act, to register a formal complaint concerning the project in question. The same day, I wrote to Premier Eby requesting the provincial Cabinet grant the required permission to the Inspector to conduct a public inquiry on an expedited basis. My communication to the Premier was re-directed to your predecessor as Minister of Municipal Affairs, from whom I received no response.
By letter, dated August 1, 2024, the Inspector advised that she would not be seeking Cabinet permission to conduct a public inquiry into this matter but, rather, would “be monitoring Metro Vancouver’s audit process and governance review to determine if any additional provincial actions are required.” With due respect to the Inspector, this is an incorrect position to adopt and, in any event, decisions respecting such a serious situation ought not to be left up to an unelected official no matter how senior their rank. This is for you and your Cabinet colleagues alone to decide.
Metro has yet to publicly identify who is to conduct their “independent review” nor the terms of reference for this undertaking. In any event, as Metro will be both choosing, and compensating, the individual concerned, as well as approving the terms of reference for the review, in no way can this exercise be considered by a reasonable observer to be “independent”.
As far as the civil action commenced in March, 2022 by Acciona, the dismissed contractor, is concerned, I have recently been informed by Metro Chairman, Mayor Hurley of Burnaby, that the trial has been set to begin in March, 2027, five years after the action was commenced and, conveniently for some it appears, five months after the next municipal elections. Further, to date no oral examinations for discovery have been held, nor have any as yet been scheduled. According to Mayor Hurley, the parties are still in the “discovery of documents stage” of the proceeding. This strikes me as an unduly dilatory approach to the conduct of litigation. Again, it seems to be convenient for some that there is as yet no sworn testimony on the public record as to what has gone wrong with the project or why.
If, as I and others suspect, the civil action is likely to be resolved by way of a negotiated settlement, complete with an exchange of non-disclosure agreements, there may never be any disclosure of the pertinent facts. In which case, rate-payers throughout Metro will be left in the dark, while being saddled with a substantial financial burden for years to come. This is simply unacceptable. Not only ought the public and, not incidentally, both the federal and provincial governments, be fully informed as to what has taken place respecting this benighted project, there are no doubt important lessons to be learned and then to be applied respecting the many other major infrastructure projects Metro is currently undertaking or has in the planning stage.
In early November, to their credit, the District of North Vancouver Council voted unanimously to call upon the province to conduct a public inquiry into this project, a demand which has been echoed by the NS News in the accompanying editorial. The obvious question is: Why haven’t any other municipal councils throughout Metro done the same? A cynic might conclude that many, if not most, local government councillors are more concerned about maintaining, or obtaining, a lucrative Metro appointment, a ‘side hussle’ as one media observer has deliciously termed it, than in representing the interests of those they were elected to serve.
All of this to say, it is long past time for the provincial government to step forward and assume a leadership role respecting this major foul-up. The Premier’s stated position of last summer, of merely monitoring Metro’s self-directed audit process from the sidelines, is no longer tenable if it ever was. You are new to the portfolio of Minster of Municipal Affairs. You bear no responsibility for the project’s miscues or, so far at least, for what is beginning to look uncomfortably like a cover-up of the various errors and omissions which have taken place concerning the project over these past years. The Local Government Act, which you administer, contains a tailor-made provision, section 764, for a thorough and far-reaching public inquiry into this matter of great concern, the costs of which Metro ratepayers and not BC taxpayers are accountable under the legislation (section 764(4)). It appears that you are the “man of the hour” here.
As you know, this is an issue for all Metro rate-payers and not only for those of us who reside on the North Shore. Will you assume the lead in persuading your provincial Cabinet colleagues to take the long overdue action and instruct the Inspector of Municipalities or her designate to forthwith commence a public inquiry pursuant to section 764 of the Local Government Act into the project?
Yours sincerely,
David Marley,
Chairman,
NSNA