The cost of a controversial project to remove tens of thousands of trees from Stanley Park has ballooned, with the latest budget increase coming following a closed-door meeting at Vancouver city council.
The Vancouver Park Board says 160,000 of the park’s trees are dead or dying as the result of a hemlock looper moth infestation and pose a safety and fire risk.
But the cost of the removal operation appears to be far higher than what the public has been told so far.
A memo obtained by Global News reveals there were confidential decisions made by council in May, approving a budget increase of $11.1 million to the park board to carry out the logging.
That money is in addition to $1.9 million approved last year and $4.9 million approved in January.
Both of those prior decisions were public.
The latest figure brings the total cost to nearly $18 million.
“This time it was done in secret, that’s bad news for people that are concerned about democratic government,” said Michael Caditz with Save Stanley Park.
Caditz is part of a group currently suing the city over the tree-removal plan.
The memo came to light as part of court proceedings in that lawsuit.
“We have discovered now with this new information that there is this veil of secrecy that we didn’t know was there,” he said.
“We thought it was just poor allocation of funds and not good science but now it’s bigger than that, there’s something big happening. There’s something awry now.”
Global News asked Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim why the funding increase was done in secret.
“This is the first I’ve heard of this so we’ll get details for you,” Sim said.
A spokesperson for the city said the decision in question was about authorizing staff to proceed with a competitive procurement process for the remaining tree removal work.
That procurement is slated to start in the fourth quarter of 2024, and that once a contract was awarded it would be made public.