Glen Clark to be involved in Metro Vancouver Regional District review | Daily Hive

Former BC premier Glen Clark to be involved in Metro Vancouver Regional District governance review

Headquarters office of Metro Vancouver Regional District. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

An independent third-party review of Metro Vancouver Regional District’s governance will be led by audit and consulting firm Deloitte.

It was announced today that Deloitte will begin its review in March 2025, working with the regional district’s board of directors, which is comprised of mayors and city councillors.

Furthermore, Deloitte will consult a volunteer-based independent panel of advisors, which includes former B.C. Premier Glen Clark, who was appointed the new chair of BC Hydro in December 2024 after leaving his executive role at Jim Pattison Group two years ago.

Other panel members include former B.C. Minister of Finance Colin Hansen, RBC regional president Martin Thibodeau, Nch’ḵaỷ Development Corporation chief development officer Jennifer Podmore Russell, and former chief financial officer and vice president of Vancouver Airport Authority Diane Vuong.

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It is noted that this governance review of the regional district is being conducted in partnership with the Government of British Columbia.

“This is a significant step in moving this review forward in a timely manner,” said Mike Hurley, chair of the regional district’s board of directors and the mayor of Burnaby, in a statement.

“This review will examine Board and committee structure and composition, remuneration, and Board decision-making processes. Our goal is to ensure transparency and accountability throughout that process.”

This follows growing public and media criticism and concerns over the regional district’s growing operating budget and mandate, with some board of directors also suggesting pairing down the regional district’s responsibilities to its core mandate.

Other concerns have also related to the growing compensation costs for municipally elected officials across the region to attend the regular meetings of the board of directors and its 16 governance committees.

During today’s meeting, the board of directors folded the Regional Culture Committee into the Finance Committee, folded the Flood Resilience Task Force into the Air Quality and Climate Committee, and dissolved the Fraser River Crossing Task Force, which provided recommendations to the provincial government for the future George Massey Tunnel replacement project. There could be additional changes to the committees at a later date.

As another development today, as a part of the ongoing review of the regional district’s programs and initiatives, the board of directors also decided to retain the Housing Development Fund and Zero Waste Collaboration Initiatives but will work to identify cost savings. This follows last week’s decision to axe the grant that supports the Fraser Basin Council. Moving forward to cut down operating costs, the board of directors will review each department, including the Metro Vancouver Water District, Greater Vancouver Sewerage and Drainage District, and the Metro Vancouver Housing Corporation.

The regional district’s growing capital budgets for new construction are another area of major concern, particularly for the North Shore Waste Water Treatment Plant and the Iona Island Waste Water Treatment Plant.

The new replacement North Shore sewage treatment plant project saw its budget soar from $700 million to $3.86 billion. Major construction activity recently resumed under a new contractor, with completion now slated for 2030 — 10 years after the original target of 2020.

It was also announced today that an independent audit of the North Shore plant project will be led by Peter Milburn, who led the provincial government’s reviews for the Site C hydroelectric dam project and the Kicking Horse Canyon Phase 4 project.

“The collective experience of our team uniquely positions us to conduct a rigorous and impartial assessment of the project’s financial evolution, budget reliability, project management function, and governance,” said Milburn in a statement. “We look forward to getting to work and to sharing results back to the Board with recommendations for the future.”

The two largest municipal governments in the region have also directly reacted to the governance concerns in different ways, with Vancouver mayor Ken Sim boycotting the regional district by not attending the board of directors meetings and Surrey City Council unanimously voting to remove its jurisdiction from the regional district’s Metro 2050 Regional Growth Strategy. Port Coquitlam mayor Brad West pushed sweeping changes, including the compensation of elected officials attending meetings and the number of committees.

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