The North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant (“NSWWTP”) was budgeted for $700 million (similar to the cost of a plant in Victoria), yet the estimated cost has now ballooned to $3.86 billion, and this does not include costs associated with decommissioning the old site nor the cost of litigation with the former contractor Acciona.

I have called for a public inquiry into the reasons for this debacle, which should identify the individuals responsible for the disastrous decision-making and clearly outline the causes of the runaway cost escalation.

This is a clear example of why the current model of councillors and mayors moonlighting as Metro Vancouver Directors has clearly failed and has left the Metro Vancouver bureaucracy to operate without meaningful oversight, and why we need a new model