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Briefly: Hong Xu was banned for driving for five years and fined $2,000 for driving without due care and attention in August 2022. Her SUV struck and killed two people at a wedding party in West Vancouver and injured seven others. 
The injured and relatives of the dead cannot sue, due to the NDP’s May 2021 move to no-fault auto insurance. 
Bob Mackin

The driver of the SUV that struck and killed two people and injured seven others at a West Vancouver wedding party more than two years ago was banned from driving for five years. 

In North Vancouver Provincial Court on Sept. 17, Hong Xu, 66, was also fined $2,000 for driving without due care and attention. Investigators determined she accidentally stepped on the gas pedal instead of the brake, so she was charged under the Motor Vehicle Act.

North Vancouver Provincial Court (B.C. Courthouse Libraries)

Because Xu avoided being charged under the Criminal Code, victims and relatives of the deceased cannot file a civil lawsuit due to the NDP government’s move to a no-fault insurance system in May 2021.

Judge Rita Bowry agreed to the joint sentencing proposal from Crown and defence lawyers, which also includes a $300 maximum victim fine surcharge. 

Bowry cautioned that the sentence “is not, nor should it be, a reflection of the value of the lives lost or injured and nothing I say or do can truly capture the magnitude of the loss or restore families to the way they were before the tragic events of Aug. 20, 2022.”

The judge said it was in Xu’s favour that she pleaded guilty early in the proceedings and spared the victims and witnesses a “long and harrowing trial.”

“The driving ban also sends a message to the public that driving is not a right but a privilege,” Bowry said.

She said that Xu stepped on the gas pedal instead of the brake near her Keith Road and Keith Place residence, sending her Range Rover SUV to collide with two stone pillars before it struck several victims at a wedding party and stopped on top of an ornamental courtyard fountain. 

Annie Kong, 67, and Lieu Nguyen, 62, died. The seven other victims ranged in age from a year-old infant to someone in their mid-70s. 

Bowry said Xu, a Canadian citizen, has no criminal record and a modest driving record, but had voluntarily stopped driving. 

A day earlier, Xu, who has dyed blonde, shoulder length hair, apologized in Mandarin, through an English translator, that she was “heartbroken for the misery” she caused.

“She will always face the stigma of the unmeasurable harm done,” Bowry said.

“She has become withdrawn and socially avoided since the accident. She accepts without hesitation whatever the court decision will be and does not ask for any accommodation.”

Bowry said that Xu had instructed her lawyer, Ian Donaldson, “to make amends with those involved,” but did not specify any dollar amount offered to the victims’ families.

Outside the court, Kong’s daughter, Joanna Moy, said Xu’s sentence was unjust. 

“She should’ve gotten at least a lifetime drivers licence ban,” May said.

At the time of the incident, Xu was involved with Westgem Communities Development Ltd., a company touting a proposal to build the 20-acre, N2W mixed use development near the Richmond Olympic Oval. 

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Briefly: Hong Xu was banned for driving

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For the week of  Sept. 15, 2024:

On the way to B.C.’s Oct. 19 election, David Eby’s NDP government issued a secret order to the province’s forestry policing service. 

In a nutshell, it says do not investigate government wrongdoing. 

It became public because of Bryce Casavant, a former forestry investigator and conservation officer. He exposed what is officially called “General Order #5” in a story for the TheConversation.com. 

He says it compromises those who are responsible for upholding laws to protect the province’s environment and economy. 

“It’s an unlawful order,” Casavant told thePodcast host Bob Mackin. “It should be rescinded immediately.”

Bryce Casavant lectures at Royal Roads University’s School of Humanitarian Studies about legal aspects of environmental management. He is Mackin’s guest on this edition of thePodcast. 

Plus, this week’s Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines. 

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For the week of  Sept. 15, 2024:

Business, Culture, News

Briefly: In August, the Chartered Professional Accountants of B.C. cancelled Anwar Chaudhry’s membership for misconduct, including signing false and misleading documents and associating with unlawful activity. 
The organization investigated Chaudhry after learning of an RCMP probe. The names of the companies and their principals were censored from the decision.

Bob Mackin 

The former chief financial officer of the Destination Canada Crown corporation is no longer a chartered professional accountant after the industry’s governing body found he signed false and misleading documents and associated with unlawful activity. 

The Chartered Professional Accountants of B.C. (CPABC) cancelled Anwar Chaudhry’s membership in an Aug. 7 decision. A three-member panel, headed by Rozmin Sayani, said Chaudhry did not attend a hearing nor did he contest allegations that he violated the Code of Professional Conduct.

Anwar Chaudhry

“His conduct was not only unprofessional, it was grossly reckless,” said the ruling, which was posted on the CPABC website after an inquiry from a reporter. “And his lack of recognition and responsibility for the consequences of his conduct, coupled with his lack of cooperation with the CPABC, make him unfit to be a member of the profession.”

CPABC also fined Chaudhry $25,000 for committing six violations of the Code of Conduct and ordered him to pay costs to be determined for the hearing and investigation.

CPABC said the misconduct centred around Chaudhry’s signing of financial statements and documents as CFO of companies that he was not associated with. He also knew the statements and documents would be shown to potential investors and he knew, or should have known, they were false and misleading. 

The partially censored decision said that CPABC received information from the RCMP about an investigation. In 2022, Chaudhry met with the president and CEO of a company, whose name was redacted. Although he had no previous involvement, Chaudhry signed undated, 12-month revenue forecasts for two companies with his CPA.CA designation and CFO title. 

The forecasts projected monthly revenue of $135 million and total revenue of nearly $2.3 billion. Chaudhry also signed a profit and loss statement that forecast $5.52 million total revenue. 

Yet, he had not reviewed the records and did not inquire about the backgrounds of the principals. 

Also, he “had no objective basis from verifiable financial records to support the forecasts, did not verify the calculations or the sources of the stated revenue, did not recognize those sources were controlled by the president of [redacted], and expressed no concern for the potential risk of fraud in connection with the use of the forecasts.”

The panel said Chaudhry was told the documents he signed were intended for potential investors and, if the investments materialized, he could become the company’s CFO.

“On receiving information from the RCMP about its investigation into [redacted] and its interview of the member, in which the member admitted signing the revenue forecasts as a CPA.CA and the CFO of the companies, the CPABC sent the member a detailed letter asking for his comments. The member did not respond.”

Chaudhry’s name does not appear in B.C.’s online criminal court registry. 

Chaudhry did send email to the CPABC, to say that he “trusted these individuals and these were just a few spreadsheet numbers that I signed to say they add up, as presented, and nothing more. This was not a projection or pro forma statement.”

“But any rational individual would know those were not adequate for investment purposes,” he wrote.

Chaudhry denied receiving any remuneration. The CPABC member since 1985 also called it a mistake to put his name on the statements.

Anita Ballantyne‑Berthier, spokesperson for Destination Canada, said Chauhry “ceased working” for it in August 2023. 

“Any questions regarding the decision made by CPABC should be directed to them,” Ballantyne‑Berthier said.

Chaudhry joined Destination Canada, formerly known as the Canadian Tourism Commission, in 2017. He previously spent 19 years with ICBC and eight months with BC Transit before two years with Pacific Northern Gas Ltd.

The Chaudhry decision came in the wake of Business in Vancouver feature stories in July about CPABC’s tendency to withhold names of members who are subject to discipline. 

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Briefly: In August, the Chartered Professional Accountants

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Briefly: The ABC majority city council voted behind closed doors to spend another $11.1 million on logging Stanley Park trees affected by the Hemlock looper moth infestation. 
In July, four citizens sued city hall, the park board and their contractor for negligence due to the secretive operation to cut down 160,000 trees. 

Bob Mackin 

The ABC majority Vancouver city council decided in a secret meeting to spend another $11.1 million on logging more than a quarter of Stanley Park’s trees, theBreaker.news has learned.

Vancouver city council, led by Mayor Ken Sim (centre) (City of Vancouver)

A confidential June 3 memo to park board commissioners said councillors unanimously consented to a May 28 “budget adjustment” motion to get rid of more trees killed by the Hemlock looper moth infestation. 

The motion, in financial planning director Natalie Froehlich’s memo, read: “That council approve the one-time 2024 operating budget increase of $11.1 million for the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation to fund the next phase of immediate work required to mitigate safety risks from dead trees caused by the Hemlock looper moth within Stanley Park, to be funded from the general revenue stabilization reserve.”

The total budget is now $18 million.  

The memo is contained in documents filed by the city in B.C. Supreme Court in response to Save Stanley Park’s July 11 lawsuit. A hearing is scheduled for Sept. 16.

The plaintiffs — software developer Michael Robert Caditz and homemaker Katherine Caditz, holistic health educator Anita Hansen and schoolteacher Jillian Maguire — accuse the City of Vancouver, park board, urban forestry manager Joe McLeod and contractor B.A. Blackwell and Associates of negligence. 

From the May 27, 2024 park board closed door meeting (CoV/B.C. Supreme Court)

The city responded Sept. 9, denying the negligence allegation. Instead, it said it acted in the interest of public safety, followed all city spending authority and procurement rules and that staff consulted politicians.

Last November, the city announced it would cut down 160,000 trees affected by the moth and drought, for fear that trees would fall on people and vehicles and be consumed by a wildfire. Yet, it did not publicly release B.A. Blackwell’s report justifying the operation until February. 

As of April, crews logged only 7,201 trees — 50.8% of which are over 20 centimetres in diameter. The city claims it has planted 25,000 seedlings, including western red cedar, Douglas fir, grand fir, Sitka spruce and red alder. Logging is scheduled to resume in October and carry on through March. 

The plaintiffs argue there was never a motion at a public park board meeting to direct staff to spend millions of dollars to remove trees from Stanley Park nor was there a motion in an open meeting to approve any contract with B.A. Blackwell or to hire logging subcontractors. 

“Had such public hearing transpired, then experts with alternate recommendations and any conflicting scientific evidence would have had an opportunity to be heard,” the lawsuit claims.

The plaintiffs claim the tree removal operation has resulted in muddy trails, previously secluded or shaded areas being subject to sunlight and heat and increased traffic noise and exposure to roadways. Also, the sights and sounds of heavy machinery that emit diesel exhaust. 

The result, the four plaintiffs claim, is that the logging has harmed their mental health and caused them physical discomfort. 

The city’s defence filing points to the July 10, 2023 park board resolution that directed staff to develop a risk mitigation plan to remove dead trees from Stanley Park, “including estimated costs and implementation timelines of any recommended actions.”

In August 2023, while city council was on summer hiatus, deputy city manager Karen Levitt approved $2.1 million in emergency spending for B.A. Blackwell to undertake the first phase of logging. City council rubber-stamped another $4.9 million at an open meeting last January.

Cyclists pass sections of logged trees in the parking lot near Ceperley Park Playground in Stanley Park (Bob Mackin photo)

In June of this year, staff awarded B.A. Blackwell another contract, worth $2.76 million plus taxes, through April 15, 2025, with an option to extend to the end of June 2025. 

Staff made presentations to closed-door park board meetings held Feb. 5, March 27 and May 27. The latter meeting was the day before city council’s secret $11.1 million approval.

Civic lawyer Iain Dixon’s filing said the negligence lawsuit should be thrown out because the plaintiffs do not meet the legal test for an injunction. 

“Even if the plaintiffs were able to convince this court that a duty of care exists in these circumstances, the park board would be shielded from liability on the basis that the decision to engage in this work was a policy and not an operational one,” said the city’s defence statement. 

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Briefly: The ABC majority city council voted

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Briefly: The B.C. government’s $193 million, 2017 funding agreement for the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant gave Victoria the power to investigate and audit the project. 
But, with a provincial election looming, Premier David Eby continues to say it is up to Metro Vancouver to sort out the mess. 
The project is expected to cost five times more than budgeted and open 10 years later than originally scheduled. 

Bob Mackin

One of the seven municipal politicians seeking an investigation of the troubled North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant project says Premier David Eby lacks the political will to get to the bottom of the $3 billion cost overrun.

Attorney General Eby (Mackin)

At a Sept. 9 campaign event, Eby told reporters it was “important for Metro Vancouver to take responsibility for their own messes.” 

“But if they fail to do it, the province will step in,” Eby said. 

New Westminster Coun. Daniel Fontaine said Eby’s passive response and Metro Vancouver’s July decision to hire a lawyer to advise the board about a performance audit are both inadequate. Fontaine said the province is “not an innocent bystander,” since it granted $193 million to Metro Vancouver in 2017, when the budget was $700 million. 

“As such, [the NDP government] should express a deep interest in the financial viability of this project, given that there has been additional requests by Metro Vancouver for additional funding to cover the cost overruns,” Fontaine said in an interview. 

The March 2017 agreement, signed by then-BC Liberal communities minister Peter Fassbender, provided Metro Vancouver the full grant upon execution of the contract, on the basis that it begin the project within six months. Otherwise, the province would begin to claw-back the money. 

The agreement, obtained from Metro Vancouver by theBreaker.news under freedom of information, contains an audit clause and gives the province the power to see all of Metro Vancouver’s project records. It includes requirements for Metro Vancouver to report to the province quarterly and annually about construction progress.

Metro Vancouver’s sewage and drainage division “may be required, at its expense, to provide a project audit report from a person authorized to be an auditor under section 169 of the Community Charter confirming that the project expenditures have been made in compliance with this agreement. 

New Westminster City Councillor Daniel Fontaine (Zoom)

“If required by the province, the audit is to be in accordance with the form and reporting standards recommended by the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada,” the clause said.

The province also has the power to “inspect at all reasonable times, any books of account or records (both printed and electronic. including, but not limited to, electronic storage devices), whether complete or not, and any executed contracts that are produced, received or otherwise acquired by [Metro] as a result of this agreement.”

On Sept. 9, Fontaine, fellow New Westminster Coun. Paul Minhas, Burnaby’s Richard T. Lee, Maple Ridge’s Ahmed Yousef, Richmond’s Kash Heed, and Surrey’s Linda Annis and Mike Bose jointly announced that they would ask their council colleagues to vote for their respective mayors to write letters to Eby. The letters would ask him to order an independent review of Metro Vancouver governance and to compel the province’s Inspector of Municipalities to conduct an inquiry under Section 764 of the Local Government Act. 

“This is not an issue of a lack of tools, this is an issue of a lack of political will to get this done,” Fontaine said. “That’s very different.”

On March 22, Metro Vancouver commissioner Jerry Dobrovolny announced the project would cost $3.86 billion and not be finished until 2030. It was supposed to be open by 2020.

North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant construction site on July 10, 2024 (Mackin)

That means higher utility bills across the region, hitting North Shore ratepayers the hardest at another $600-per-year for three decades. 

Dobrovolny blamed materials and labour inflation, supply chain delays and the 2022 firing of original builder Acciona. The two sides are suing each other. 

PCL took over construction management with AECOM as designer. 

Meanwhile, the $212.3 million federal funding agreement from 2016 contains similar clauses about regular progress reports and requires Metro Vancouver to co-operate should the federal Auditor General want to investigate. 

Unlike the lump sum payment from the province, the federal agreement called for annual payments of varying amounts spread out over eight years. 

A spokesperson for Metro Vancouver said the federal government is withholding 10%, or $21.3 million, until the project is complete. Metro Vancouver would bill Ottawa for the remaining $10 million during this fiscal year. 

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Briefly: The B.C. government’s $193 million, 2017

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For the week of  Sept. 8, 2024:

A reporter’s reporter. A storyteller like no other in B.C. 

Mike McCardell delivered his final Last Word report and retired on Aug. 30.

The 80-year-old made a career of telling extraordinary stories about everyday people. It all began in his native New York with the Daily News. The late-1960s and early-1970s were the glory days of newspapers and crime reporting. It was also a dangerous time to raise a family in New York. 

McCardell came to Vancouver with his family in 1973 to work for the Vancouver Sun. He switched to BCTV (now Global BC) three years later. In 2013, he joined CTV News Vancouver. Along the way, he authored 13 books from Harbour Publishing. 

Mike McCardell is Bob Mackin’s guest on this edition of thePodcast. 

Plus, this week’s Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines. 

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For the week of  Sept. 8, 2024:

Business, News

Briefly:  Richard Charles Reed killed underground banker Jian Jun Zhu at a Richmond restaurant in September 2020, according to a B.C. Supreme Court judge. 
Reed will face a mandatory 25 years in jail without parole.
Reed was found not guilty of attempting to murder Paul King Jin, a well-known Richmond loan shark. 

Bob Mackin

A B.C. Supreme Court judge found Richard Charles Reed guilty Sept. 4 of the first degree murder of a notorious underground banker in Richmond.

Silver International underground banker Jian Jun Zhu.

Justice Jeanne Watchuk heard the case in April and May and agreed with the Crown that Reed was guilty beyond reasonable doubt of killing Jian Jun Zhu nearly four years ago at the Manzo Restaurant. The crime carries an automatic sentence of 25 years in prison with no parole. 

“The only reasonable conclusion to draw from the facts is that on Sept. 18, 2020, at 7:35 p.m., Mr. Reed walked up to the window of the Manzo Restaurant and shot the person sitting on the other side, Mr. Zhu, in the back of the head,” said Watchuk in her written verdict. “Mr. Reed intended to kill Mr. Zhu when he shot him. The decision to kill Mr. Zhu was not taken on the spur of the moment, but Mr. Reed planned and deliberated it by both surveying the scene and preparing his escape in the 20 minutes before the shooting, and by coordinating directly and indirectly with Gordon Ma, Yuexi (Alex) Lei, and Jin Cai to prepare for and carry out the murder.”

Watchuk also found Reed guilty as charged of reckless discharge of a firearm and possession of a prohibited firearm, but not guilty of attempting to murder well-known Richmond loan shark Paul King Pao Jin or possession of a firearm knowing the serial number had been defaced. 

The Crown relied on video evidence, evidence of Reed’s coordination and communication with Ma, Lei and Cai before the crime and Reed’s possession of the murder weapon. The trial heard that police found an M1911A, 9-millimetre, .45 calibre pistol under Reed’s bed at a McBain Avenue house in Vancouver on Nov. 28, 2020.

The Crown alleged Ma provided a black and white striped hoody for Reed to wear and Lei burned the hoody at his residence. A witness described Lei’s residence as a “clubhouse,” where he had plans to operate an illegal casino. 

Video evidence showed a male wearing a striped hoody in the area of the restaurant between 7:11 p.m. and 7:36 p.m. on Sept. 18, 2020. The shooting occurred at 7:35 p.m. 

Paul King Jin (BCLC/Cullen Commission)

Ma frequently communicated by phone with Cai, who attended the dinner party with Jin and Zhu, the man behind the underground Richmond bank Silver International Ltd. that was accused of laundering $200 million annually. A federal case against Zhu collapsed in November 2018 after prosecutors errantly exposed the name of an informant.

According to the manager’s testimony, the restaurant was busy, with 30 to 40 customers inside.

“The group ate, drank, made toasts, and everyone was happy,” Watchuk wrote. 

Cai paid the bill for the dinner party, 10 to 15 minutes before the shooting, and left early, supposedly to go home and walk his dog. 

“Mr. Cai was the only person to leave the dinner early. He left when Mr. Reed first walked through the Manzo Restaurant parking lot,” Watchuk wrote.

Cai was murdered in June 2021 at his home in Vancouver’s Fraserview neighbourhood. 

The Manzo manager testified he heard “pop pop pop noises followed by people yelling, screaming, and fleeing the restaurant.”

He also saw Zhu laying on the bench near the window, with blood on the back of his head. So he called 9-1-1. 

Zhu’s cause of death was a single gunshot wound to the back of his skull. Jin survived a gunshot wound to his left cheek, lacerations to the bridge of his nose, and a single gunshot wound to his left hip.

In March 2023, a special prosecutor opted against charging Jin for proceeds of crime and money laundering, because he concluded there was no substantial likelihood or reasonable prospect of conviction.

Victoria lawyer Chris Considine said investigators identified 10 events, in which Jin moved $2.4 million between February 2017 and May 2017. They traced the chain of communications and transfer of funds to demonstrate that cash Jin obtained was the result of offshore transfer of funds to accounts in China. 

Lei was arrested in March 2022 on two counts of accessory after the fact and one count of accessory after the fact to murder, but his charges were upgraded in September 2022 to include first degree murder and attempted murder. 

In May 2023, Lei pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact to murder, unlawful possession of a firearm with readily accessible ammunition and unlawful possession of a prohibited weapon. However, he applied in August to withdraw his guilty pleas.

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Briefly:  Richard Charles Reed killed underground banker

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Briefly: Conservative leader John Rustad vows to reform B.C.’s freedom of information system.
In an interview with Jordan Peterson, the main challenger to the NDP said he would “make all of the information that can be made public, public.” 
Instead of improving the law, the NDP government imposed a $10 application fee. The Information and Privacy Commissioner found the NDP frequently broke the law by delaying disclosure of records for more than six months. 

Bob Mackin

The leader of the Conservative Party of B.C. is promising a radical change to fix the freedom of information system if he upsets the governing NDP in the Oct. 19 election. 

During an interview with psychologist and commentator Jordan Peterson that debuted Sept. 3, John Rustad said he wants to “change politics forever in British Columbia” and vowed to make public records open by default.

Conservative leader John Rustad (right) on Jordan Peterson’s podcast (Peterson/YouTube)

“You have all this information, which is public information, and if you want it, you have to pay a certain amount of money, and you can apply to access it,” Rustad said during the Aug. 15-recorded interview. “Months later, you might get some redacted document that you get. I’m going to change that. I’m going to get rid of freedom information requests, because I’m going to make all of the information that can be made public, public. The job of the freedom information officer should be to say what can’t be made public.”

Since November 2021, when John Horgan was premier and David Eby the attorney-general, the NDP government has charged a $10 application fee for requests. Applicants are entitled to the first three hours of service at no charge and records are supposed to be disclosed within 30 business days, but the law includes numerous exceptions to disclosure and extensions to deadlines. 

“Give the people the facts, give them the information and then it’s no longer politicians that are giving spin, but politicians that are responding to the facts, and you can judge political parties based on facts, as opposed to based on whatever spin they’re giving,” Rustad told Peterson. 

Rustad said such a new approach would help restore confidence in government institutions “that’s being lost and continually eroded, particularly because of what’s going on with the politics of the left.”

Michael McEvoy, who was B.C.’s Information and Privacy Commissioner until his term ended in the spring, found the $10 fee was not used for cost-recovery, but a barrier to information that led to declines in requests from media, political parties and individuals. 

The charge and other controversial 2021 amendments to the law garnered the NDP government the Canadian Association of Journalists’ Code of Silence award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Secrecy in 2022. 

Moreover, McEvoy found in a January report that the NDP had continuously broken the law. The government was taking an average 85 business days to respond to requests, the worst performance since McEvoy’s office began reporting on timeliness of responses 13 years earlier. 

In 5,100 cases between 2020 and 2023, government exceeded deadlines without legal authority. By the 2022-23 fiscal year, applicants were forced to wait an average 192 additional business days for a response. 

During his time in the BC Liberal opposition, Rustad was a member of an all-party committee that recommended numerous changes to improve the FOI law in 2022. The NDP did not adopt the recommendations.

Originally elected in 2005 to represent the Nechako Lakes riding, Rustad was the aboriginal relations and reconciliation minister from 2013 to 2017 under Premier Christy Clark. He was briefly forests minister after the 2017 election until the Green-supported NDP minority defeated Clark on a confidence vote. 

The NDP had promised to improve the law after the BC Liberals’ 2015 “triple delete” scandal. Then-commissioner Elizabeth Denham found widespread deleting of records that were supposed to be released to FOI requests. 

Federally, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised in the 2015 Liberal platform to make records open by default. That never happened. While he maintained the $5 application fee, but the Liberal government stopped federal offices from charging additional fees. 

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Briefly: Conservative leader John Rustad vows to

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Briefly: The 2016 federal agreement to fund a third of North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant costs requires Metro Vancouver to pay for all overruns. 
Originally budgeted at $700 million for a 2020 completion, Metro Vancouver revealed in March that it would take until 2030 and cost $3.86 billion to complete. 
A New Westminster city councillor is encouraged the agreement could open the door for an independent federal audit.

Bob Mackin 

Metro Vancouver has not claimed $31.3 million owed from from the federal government under an eight-year-old agreement to fund a third of the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant project.

A copy of the September 2016 agreement, obtained under freedom of information, said $636.9 million of the original $700 million budget was deemed eligible under a federal program that would pay $212.3 million.

North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant construction site on July 10, 2024 (Mackin)

However, on March 22, Metro Vancouver commissioner Jerry Dobrovolny announced the project would cost $3.86 billion and not be finished until 2030 — more than five times the original budget and 10 years later than promised. Dobrovolny blamed materials and labour inflation and the 2022 firing of original builder Acciona. The two sides are suing each other. 

Dobrovolny deferred a reporter’s questions about the agreement to the Metro Vancouver communications office. Spokesperson Jillian Glover said “we have claimed $181 million to date.” 

She said $21.3 million, or 10%, is held back by the federal government until Metro Vancouver fulfils its side of the agreement. The remaining $10 million will be sought during the current fiscal year. 

The agreement was originally scheduled to expire March 31, 2024, but, in December 2020, it was extended to the end of March 2028. 

Despite the costs ballooning, Glover said the federal government has not suspended its funding obligation, withheld any payments or denied any claims. It also did not trigger the default clauses. 

But the contract is clear about one thing: “The recipient will be responsible for all costs of the project including cost overruns, if any.”

At the time of the agreement, the project was aimed at meeting a federal deadline of Dec. 31, 2020 for secondary level treatment by replacing the 1961-built primary treatment facility on Squamish Nation land near the Lions Gate Bridge. Metro Vancouver has since upgraded the plan to tertiary treatment. 

“The current plant is considered to be high risk under Environment Canada’s Wastewater System Effluent Regulations (WSER),” the agreement said. 

The federal money was supposed to be paid out in different sums annually over eight fiscal years, from 2016-17 to 2023-24, and help to acquire, plan, design and construct the plant and pay for federal communication activities, such as project signage. 

“The parties acknowledge that Canada’s role in the project is limited to making a financial contribution to the recipient for the project and that Canada will have no involvement in the implementation of the project or its operation. Canada is neither a decision-maker nor an administrator to the Project,” said the agreement.

Metro Vancouver agreed to eight commitments, including “completion of the project in a diligent and timely manner as per applicable standards within the costs and deadlines specified in this agreement and in accordance with the terms and conditions of this agreement.”

There were several accountability mechanisms built-in, such as an oversight committee co-chaired by federal and Metro representatives, the submission of no fewer than two progress reports annually and to provide the federal government and auditor general “reasonable and timely access to the project sites, facilities, and any documentation for the purposes of audit, inspection, monitoring, evaluation, and ensuring compliance with this agreement.”

The requirement to open the books to the auditor general is significant, according to a New Westminster city councillor demanding transparency and accountability about the project and overall reform of Metro Vancouver’s governance.

“The fact that the feds are holding on to that $31 million or that Metro hasn’t claimed it is newsworthy to me,” said Coun. Daniel Fontaine of the New West Progressives. “I’m wondering if they can even get that $31 million back.”

Fontaine said he also wants to see the province’s agreement. However, Metro Vancouver is holding onto that until consultations with the province are over. Metro Vancouver’s Aug. 16 FOI response letter said the deadline is Sept. 13, just over a week before the Legislature is scheduled to be dissolved so that the provincial election campaign can formally begin. 

Fontaine said he is also encouraged that there should be other public documents generated from the reporting and oversight requirements.

“So it does appear the Auditor General of Canada can do an audit, but of course, it is at their discretion as to if or when,” he said. “I think typically they would do so at the end of a project rather than mid-stream, but that would be up to them.”

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Briefly: The 2016 federal agreement to fund

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Briefly: Victoria-born quarterback Nathan Rourke led the B.C. Lions to a 38-12 win over the Ottawa Redblacks on Aug. 31 in B.C.’s capital city. 
Nearly 15,000 people jammed Royal Athletic Park for the first Touchdown Pacific as the Lions ended a five-game losing streak and renewed hopes they can challenge for the Grey Cup at B.C. Place Stadium in November.

Nathan Rourke (left) and B.C. Lions teammates celebrate near the end of the first half in Victoria’s Royal Athletic Park on Aug. 31, 2024 (Mackin).

Bob Mackin

Victoria: A city better known for rugby and political football shoehorned 14,727 people into a temporary stadium at the local minor league baseball team’s park on the last day of August for the first Canadian Football League game on Vancouver Island.

In Touchdown Pacific, Victoria-born quarterback Nathan Rourke shone as bright as the afternoon sun as his B.C. Lions ended a five-game losing streak. They beat the 7-3-1 Ottawa Redblacks 38-12 before the sellout crowd at Royal Athletic Park. 

Fans unlucky to get the hottest ticket in town gathered kitty corner in Central Park to watch on big screens.

The heat and humidity were a little greater than many expected, which made the long lineups for food, drink and washrooms seem a little longer. But fans were rewarded when the Lions leapt to a 31-6 halftime lead. 

Rourke rushed for a touchdown and threw threw more. After two disappointing losses since returning from NFL tryouts, Rourke completed 21 of 30 passes for 325 yards in the victory. He was intercepted once. 

Kicker Sean Whyte completed one of two field goals attempted, but converted all five touchdowns. Defensive lineman Matthieu Betts, who led the league with 18 sacks last year, returned from NFL tryouts to add a sack. 

Sold out Royal Athletic Park in Victoria during Aug. 31, 2024’s Touchdown Pacific (Mackin)

Ottawa quarterback Dru Brown went 21-for-33, with 206 yards and one touchdown to Dominique Rhymes. Kicker Lewis Ward added two field goals. 

As the sun set over the Pacific, beyond the emptied stadium, Rourke said he would love to see the Lions return to Royal Athletic Park. 

“[Lions’ owner Amar] Doman and the rest of the staff did a fantastic job, hats off to them, the business operation for putting it together,” Rourke said after spending time with family members on-field. “It was a great experience for us. We felt welcomed. I know it was a little bit of a different experience for us, but we felt like it was a great trip. It’s always cool to show the Americans the beautiful parts of our country, right? So this is definitely one.”

In less than two years, the FIFA 26 World Cup will take over B.C. Place Stadium and force the Lions to start their season elsewhere. Perhaps a return to Victoria or a similar match in Kamloops or Kelowna could be the solution. 

Before the Lions can begin those plans in earnest, Rourke has a big task: to keep his team atop the West division and clinch a playoff spot. 

“We’re coming down the last third of the season, and we’ve got to stay in the mix,” said head coach Rick Campbell. “We said the whole time the last few weeks, that the West is up for grabs, and who knows what’s going to happen, and those other four teams got to play each other back to back these next two weeks.”

Victoria-born Nathan Rourke pleased his family and Lions’ fans on Aug. 31 (Mackin)

The game was the Lions’ first in B.C. on natural grass since their original Vancouver home, Empire Stadium, installed artificial turf in 1970. 

Touchdown Pacific lived up to the hype with all the trappings of a mini-Grey Cup; even the trophy was there after a waterfront festival downtown. 

Commissioner Randy Ambrosie was among the VIPs who took in the proceedings with Lions’ Victoria-raised owner Doman and president Duane Vienneau. Vienneau was instrumental in the production. He came to the club after serving as chief operating officer of the league’s events division, which was behind Touchdown Atlantic neutral site matches in Moncton (2019) and Wolfville, N.S. (2022).

The Lions arranged for BC Ferries to postpone the last sailing from Swartz Bay to Tsawwassen on the mainland by an hour to 10 p.m. Orange and black was the dominant combination for hundreds of fans that still had enough energy to chant, cheer and bang on drums in the passenger boarding lineup. 

The Lions visit the league-leading Montreal Alouettes on Sept. 6 before returning to B.C. Place on Sept. 13 against the Toronto Argonauts. They don’t see one of their western rivals until October. 4, when the Calgary Stampeders visit. 

The 111th Grey Cup championship is Nov. 17 in Vancouver. 

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Briefly: Victoria-born quarterback Nathan Rourke led the

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