Metro Vancouver says it is launching an “independent review” of the giant cost overruns of the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant Program, a day after telling Global News it had no plans to take such action.
The announcement also comes one day after Premier David Eby called for an independent audit of Metro Vancouver and even hinted that if the authority could not ensure financial accountability, the province may step in.
“We take these concerns seriously and as such, as the Chair of the Board, I am initiating an independent review of the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant Program costs,” outgoing Mero Vancouver board chair George Harvie wrote in a release Tuesday.
Metro Vancouver says the scope and details of the review still need to be determined.
The plant was initially expected to be finished by 2020, at a cost of $700 million. The budget has since swelled to nearly $4 billion and the completion date has been pushed to at least 2030.
To pay for the project, Metro Vancouver voted to divide the costs across the region, with North Shore homeowners bearing the brunt with an extra $590 per year on their utility bills for the next 30 years.
Last week, seven city councillors from across Metro Vancouver called for auditor general Michael Pickup to investigate the cost overruns.
“Part of today is really, sadly … damage control. This should have come weeks, if not months ago. They’ve gone into this kicking and screaming,” New Westminster Coun. Daniel Fontaine said Tuesday.
“It’s taken letters from elected officials. It’s taken the premier even yesterday, openly musing about the B.C. auditor general to get involved. It shouldn’t have been this challenging and this difficult to acknowledge that we have a financial nightmare on the North Shore.”
Fontaine applauds Metro Vancouver’s acknowledgement of the issue but doesn’t think Tuesday’s announcement goes far enough.
“I think what the public is and was hoping for is that there would be a truly independent audit, a forensic audit of what happened and exactly how we got to where we’re at,” he said.
“That’s not quite what I heard today.”