Bob Mackin
The arm of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure overseeing the Broadway Subway Project is refusing to say exactly how much it spent through January and it claimed to be within the original budget in May.
South Granville Station, from January 2024 report (TIC/FOI)
In February, this reporter asked the Transportation Investment Corporation (TIC) for the most-recent project status report including, among other things, the financial report and schedule status. The NDP government finally disclosed the freedom of information records on July 16, but they were heavily censored to conceal key details about the megaproject that ends on the border of Premier David Eby’s Point Grey riding. The government relied on an exception to disclosure in order to withhold information that it believes could harm a public body’s financial or economic interests.
A summary of the cost and contingency report shows nearly $1.372 billion project-to-date, but the sum is incomplete because the costs for Indigenous relations and legal were censored. Other columns, which compare the budget with the true amount spent, were also censored. Despite that, the spreadsheet garnered a green rating, meaning insignificant or no concern.
Another spreadsheet, a multiyear forecast, shows $1.08 billion in costs through 2022-2023. Likewise, line items for Indigenous relations and legal costs were censored. TIC also hid the gross and net project expenditure totals and forecasts through 2026-2027.
On May 24, however, NDP transportation minister Rob Fleming announced the Broadway Subway would not open until fall 2027. Fleming’s communications staff maintained that the total budget remained unchanged at $2.83 billion. Fleming, who represents Victoria-Swan Lake, is not running in the Oct. 19 provincial election.
The 5.7 kilometre Millennium Line subway from VCC-Clark to Arbutus had previously been delayed from late 2025 to early 2026. Fleming blamed delays in tunnel boring, station excavation and relocating major utilities, along with the five-week concrete strike in 2022.
Elsewhere in the January report, there are indications of a poor safety record that is only getting worse.
The health and safety section was assigned a yellow dot for moderate concern. It showed a total 900 incidents during the life of the project, including 24 in December and 27 in January. Of the total, 552 were for first aid incidents, 110 near misses and 97 equipment/vehicle and property damage incidents.
WorkSafeBC has made 59 inspections through January, but none to end 2023 or start 2024.
The rolling 12-month lost time injury frequency per 100 workers was 2.92, but the 12-month rolling total of recordable injuries was 9.15 per 100 workers.
Mount Pleasant Station, from January 2024 report (TIC/FOI)
A chart showed days lost to injury jumped from just seven in 2022 to 122 in 2023 — a whopping increase of more than 1,600%. The trend continued in January with 18 days lost to injury.
“[Broadway Subway Project Corp.] has reported a large increase in lost time injuries in 2023. BSPC has shared their documented action plan to improve their injury reporting and claims management processes,” the report said.
There have been 26 alcohol and drug tests performed on workers, with failures by five workers attached to the main contractor and five with subcontractors. There have been 15 incidents of fire, 16 of violence, 34 incidents classified under public safety and 54 of property damage.
The report also pointed to a large number of nonconformities, or items that deviate from specifications or fail to meet quality control standards.
By the end of January, there was a total 370 nonconformities, of which 25 were still active.
“The average number of days that it took a nonconformity to be resolved and closed was 48 days,” the report said.
A heavily censored list of supervening events (or unscheduled interruptions) mentioned a “COVID-19-related health event” on Dec. 3, 2021, discovery of undisclosed utilities on July 5, 2021, acts and omissions by City of Vancouver on Nov. 19, 2021 and a “blockade or embargo falling short, protest action/force majeure event” on July 25, 2022.
BSPC is the design/build joint venture between Acciona of Spain and Ghella of Italy. Acciona is also working on the Site C dam and Pattullo Bridge projects. Metro Vancouver fired it from the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant in 2022, sparking an ongoing legal battle. The North Vancouver project is costing $3 billion more than originally budgeted and scheduled for 2030 completion — a decade late.
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