Metro Vancouver Regional District considers $22M budget cuts

Under pressure to get its fiscal house in order, the Metro Vancouver Regional District is looking at making $22 million in cuts.

At its board meeting on Friday, the district is thumbing over external contributions highlighted by staff that could be reduced, or cut altogether.

The contributions and programs identified by staff could impact its partnerships with local organizations and funding grants.

While the overall number of possible savings, up to $22 million, would help the district’s bottom line, individual households may see minimal savings.

As of 11 a.m., the district approved discontinuing its funding for the Fraser Basin Council — saving $300,000 annually. However, staff explained that households would see a saving of around 25 cents per year.

According to staff, if the district were to discontinue the Agriculture Awareness Grants, an overall saving of $60,000, households would save less than five cents per year.

New Westminster Coun. Daniel Fontaine is among those who say the regional district needs to do a lot more to show property owners that it’s spending their tax dollars wisely.

Speaking to 1130 NewsRadio Friday morning, Fontaine explained that it’s taken “literally months and months of public outcry, media stories, FOI requests, in order to get the board to the point where they’re at this stage today, looking at conducting some cost savings.”

Fontaine said that while he appreciates the cost-cutting discussions, “it’s literally just a baby step.”

Meeting to discuss cost-cutting measures costing taxpayers thousands: New West councillor

The small external contributions are not what the board should be focussing on, Fontaine explained.

“There is a lot more that should be looked at, right down to, for example, the amount of per diems that people are collecting,” he said.

“Even the meeting to talk about saving money is costing taxpayers tens of thousands of extra dollars. The irony is not lost on taxpayers that as the debate continues on throughout the day, today, they could be paying these directors over $1,000 to attend a meeting on figuring out how to save money.”

Fontaine believes that while Friday’s discussion on saving “$100,000 here, $200,000 there,” the focus should be on one of the largest cost overruns for any project in British Columbia — the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant.

“We still have no answers as to why this project went from $500 million to $4 billion. We have no information as to what led to that and whether or not that could be repeated again at the Iona Wastewater Treatment Plant, which is now pegged at $10 billion,” he said.

“It’s important to remind the board of Metro Vancouver, that there are some large cost factors that need to be put into play and into a discussion at the floor of the Metro Vancouver chamber,” he added, expressing his appreciation that Friday’s meeting included open debates and discussion of value for tax dollars.

As households across the region will see minimal savings with the discontinuation of some of the programs on the chopping block on Friday, Fontaine says the regional district needs to go back to focusing on its mandate of “solid waste, sewer, and water.”

“Beyond that, everything should be questioned as to what Metro Vancouver is doing,” he stated.

“We learned this week that senior staff at an organization that Metro Vancouver created, called Invest Vancouver, I found out through an FOI that they’re spending over $1,000 a night on luxury hotel rooms. They’re claiming $1,250 for French tutoring. They’re making claims for almost $600 worth of laundry bills. I mean, the list goes on and on.”

The New West councillor says there needs to be real questions around whether or not Metro Vancouver should still be in “the business” of participating in programs outside of its mandate.

“There should be a core review conducted of Metro Vancouver. They should look at what are the core services that this organization should be performing. Get back to the basics. Do the core services; do them extremely well, and provide as much value as you can for tax dollars, before undertaking more scope-creep and getting into being a housing developer, running regional parks, and setting up an investment arm,” he explained.

“Metro Vancouver only [exists] due to provincial legislation. And the provincial legislation, as I’ve read it, is very focused on the core services of sewer, water, and solid waste.

“The legislation was never intended for Metro Vancouver to get into all these non-core services. So do I think that the province has a role to play? You bet I do, and I’ve been saying this for months, that the province needs to step in and needs to provide some leadership and some guidance to Metro Vancouver, but unfortunately, we have not seen that from the province over the past number of months.”

The regional district’s board meeting began at 9 a.m. Friday.

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