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NORTH VANCOUVER \u2014 Two mayors from Vancouver\u2019s North Shore are calling for a public inquiry into the cost of a new wastewater treatment facility, along with a governance review of Metro Vancouver and a mechanism to ensure fairness in cost sharing.<\/p>\n
A joint statement from Mayor Linda Buchanan from the City of North Vancouver and Mayor Mike Little from North Vancouver district says they brought those requests to B.C. Premier David Eby during a meeting on Thursday.<\/p>\n
They say the projected cost of the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant has ballooned to $3.86 billion, up from an estimate of $700 million in 2017, and they\u2019re calling for a \u201crevised equitable approach to distributing those extraordinary costs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Metro Vancouver says households on the North Shore will see an average increase of $118 per year on their sewer bills until 2029 before rising to $590 per year.<\/p>\n
The mayors note the figures don\u2019t reflect the costs of decommissioning and remediating the site of the existing treatment facility, which haven\u2019t yet been quantified.<\/p>\n
Asked about the mayors\u2019 concerns, Mike Hurley, board chair for Metro Vancouver, says recent updates to financial policies ensure the regional district is able to deliver critical infrastructure \u201cin the most affordable way possible\u201d and align it with best practices for large utilities and cities across Canada.<\/p>\n
He says Buchanan and Little both sit on the board for the region, so they know Deloitte Canada has completed an independent governance review, issuing recommendations that Metro Vancouver is in the process of implementing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am not clear on their motivation for asking for something that is already being done,\u201d Hurley says in his emailed statement later Thursday.<\/p>\n
Housing Minister Christine Boyle, meanwhile, says she and Eby met with Buchanan and Little and they are taking a \u201cserious look\u201d at a letter from the two mayors.<\/p>\n
Boyle says they \u201cagree things aren\u2019t working with Metro Vancouver, and that changes need to be made,\u201d adding that\u2019s why the province appointed a representative to the governance committee for the regional district.<\/p>\n
The mayors\u2019 letter to the premier, which they shared alongside their statement, says \u201cthe disconnect between Metro Vancouver\u2019s spending priorities and the fiscal capacity of member municipalities has reached a breaking point.\u201d<\/p>\n
The statement issued Thursday says the mayors aren\u2019t disputing Metro Vancouver\u2019s cost-sharing for the original budget for the facility, but the region is treating the formula \u201clike a blank cheque.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Metro Vancouver approved its cost-sharing formula, municipalities could calculate their own costs from a defined budget and scope,\u201d it says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no open-ended commitment to absorb whatever cost overruns Metro Vancouver incurs, no matter how far a project drifts.\u201d<\/p>\n
The North Shore mayors say local governments in B.C. must meet strict requirements before taking on significant long-term debt.<\/p>\n
But they say Metro Vancouver\u2019s sewerage borrowing operates under a different framework, allowing it to \u201cborrow and assign the debt\u201d to municipalities.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo direct elector vote is required from the communities that will carry that debt for a generation,\u201d Buchanan and Little say in the statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur residents bear the financial burden of Metro\u2019s borrowing decisions without the democratic safeguards that provincial law otherwise guarantees.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mayors say it amounts to a \u201cfundamental accountability gap.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 5, 2026.<\/p>\n
The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NORTH VANCOUVER \u2014 Two mayors from Vancouver\u2019s North Shore are calling for a public inquiry…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-535566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}