As Chief Administrative Officer of Metro Vancouver, Jerry Dobrovolny oversees a 2024 budget of $2.6 billion, managing core services including water, sewers and wastewater treatment.
Metro Vancouver is governed by a board of directors made up of elected officials from across the region.
Dobrovolny admits this creates conflicts of interest.
“That is the downside of the current model, is that, when the board members are sitting in this room, they have a fiduciary responsibility to Metro Vancouver,” he said.
Seven elected officials, including New Westminster City Councillor Danie Fontaine, are calling for a governance review along with an independent audit of the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Project, estimated at $3 billion over its original budget.
“Start answering questions that the public is asking and start giving them some responses as to why this project went so much into the financial ditch,” Fontaine said.
“We still don’t have answers and this audit and governance review will at least be a start getting towards that.”
Dobrovolny said the question of a governance review was out of his hands.
“Yeah, that’s for the province to decide and the board to discuss. My responsibility is to make it work, whichever model we have,” he said.
Global News asked the province if it would do a governance review of Metro Vancouver.
A spokesperson did not directly respond to the question, saying the province would be supportive if Metro Vancouver wanted to do a review.