There are new revelations from the Metro Vancouver Regional District about recent spending.
They come amid a number of pending freedom of information requests filed by Global News on the issue.
At a Metro Vancouver board meeting Friday morning, it was announced that staff went to New Orleans in October for the Water Environment Federation’s Technical Exhibition or WEFTEC.
“I wanted to flag it for the board because it was a large number of staff that attended, it was 12 staff attended,” Chief Administrative Officer Jerry Dobrovolny said.
“Five of them presented papers, five of them were in the skills competition.”
That trip was news to Metro Vancouver’s chair, who apparently, was left in the dark about the junket.
“I found out about it, I was told that there was a request that came in for information, and that’s how and when I found out,” Chair Mike Hurley told Global News.
Dobrovolny promised that staff travel outside the province is now banned.
And, as the deadline looms for another FOI request, Metro Vancouver admitted to huge spending for a display at the PNE this year.
“The cost of the PNE is in the order of $580,000, as I said, for 90,000 (people) coming through it’s actually quite efficient for the cost per person,” he said.
Metro Vancouver denies receiving any concert tickets from the PNE.
As for the junket to New Orleans, exactly how much of your money was spent is yet to be revealed.
Spending at Metro Vancouver is facing increased scrutiny amid concerns the North Shore Wastewater treatment plant is approximately $3 billion over budget.