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The Metro Vancouver Regional District has announced that an independent review of the $3.86-billion North Shore wastewater treatment plant will resume after reaching a settlement in a legal dispute with the previous developer on the controversial project.
First announced in 2011 as a $700-million project, the treatment plant’s cost has since ballooned to more than five times that amount, and the timeline for completion has been extended to 2030.
It led to legal action against Acciona, the original contractor on the project, as well as dismay from the region’s residents over the massive cost overruns and calls for governance changes at the regional district.
While the regional district had commissioned an independent review of the project, that work was put on pause pending the outcome of the legal action.
A settlement has been reached in the lawsuits between Metro Vancouver and the Spain-based conglomerate Acciona, hired to build the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant. After the budget bloated from $700 million to nearly $4 billion, the company was fired. As the CBC’s Justin McElroy reports, Acciona has now agreed to pay a settlement to Metro Vancouver.
Metro Vancouver chair Mike Hurley said the work will now resume after the legal dispute was settled, with Acciona to pay Metro Vancouver $235 million as part of the settlement.
Hurley told CBC News that the intention is for the regional district to be hands-off with the review, and its terms of reference would be set by the legal team involved.
“There’s a lot of history to go through, and we’re going to open our books wide open for the independent investigator to look through whatever they need from Metro Vancouver’s records,” he told CBC News.
A group of North Shore residents are calling for a provincial investigation into Metro Vancouver’s North Shore wastewater treatment plant. The project has been plagued by delays and hefty cost overruns. As the CBC’s Jon Hernandez reports, Metro Vancouver says it is moving ahead with its own review of the troubled plant.
Hurley said he understood the reluctance from residents and critics who say that Metro Vancouver shouldn’t be commissioning an inquiry of its own project and its cost overruns.
“I can assure them that everything we do will be completely open book,” he said.
“However, if the province wishes to step in and be part of it … I’m open to that.”
Call for province to step in
There have been a number of calls for the B.C. government to conduct a public inquiry into the project, including from the mayors of the District and City of North Vancouver.
The North Shore Neighborhoods Alliance, a group that represents a number of residents’ associations, sent a letter to North Shore municipalities on Monday asking them to request the province step in.
Four years late and five times over budget, a new North Shore wastewater treatment plant has confounded both taxpayers and politicians. CBC’s Chad Pawson has more on what’s gone wrong.
Daniel Anderson, a spokesperson for the group, said the provincial Inspector of Municipalities has the authority to initiate an inquiry under the Local Government Act.
“Our hope is within the coming weeks to begin calling on other councils in the region — because we feel like once there is enough demand for this inquiry, it simply is going to be too hard to ignore,” he said.
Anderson said that as the region heads toward a municipal election in the fall, politicians need to signal that they care about what their constituents are going through.
“These ratepayers are saying, ‘This is a massive cost overrun. What’s the explanation?’ And all they’ve gotten is a wall of silence,” he said.
In March 2024, Metro Vancouver had said households within the North Shore sewerage area would be on the hook for an average tax increase of $725 annually for the next 30 years due to the updated price tag on the wastewater treatment plant. The average cost does not compound over the 30-year period.
