North Vancouver mayors ask Eby for inquiry into water treatment project

A ship passing under the Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver is seen on Monday, Jan. 9, 2017. (Jonathan Hayward / The Canadian Press)

NORTH VANCOUVER — Two mayors from Vancouver’s North Shore are calling for a public inquiry into the cost of a new wastewater treatment facility, along with a governance review of Metro Vancouver and a mechanism to ensure fairness in cost sharing.

A joint statement from Mayor Linda Buchanan from the City of North Vancouver and Mayor Mike Little from North Vancouver district says they brought those requests to B.C. Premier David Eby during a meeting on Thursday.

They say the projected cost of the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant has ballooned to $3.86 billion, up from an estimate of $700 million in 2017, and they’re calling for a “revised equitable approach to distributing those extraordinary costs.”

Metro Vancouver says households on the North Shore will see an average increase of $118 per year on their sewer bills until 2029 before rising to $590 per year.

The mayors note the figures don’t reflect the costs of decommissioning and remediating the site of the existing treatment facility, which haven’t yet been quantified.

Asked about the mayors’ concerns, Mike Hurley, board chair for Metro Vancouver, says recent updates to financial policies ensure the regional district is able to deliver critical infrastructure “in the most affordable way possible” and align it with best practices for large utilities and cities across Canada.

He says Buchanan and Little both sit on the board for the region, so they know Deloitte Canada has completed an independent governance review, issuing recommendations that Metro Vancouver is in the process of implementing.

“I am not clear on their motivation for asking for something that is already being done,” Hurley says in his emailed statement later Thursday.

Housing Minister Christine Boyle, meanwhile, says she and Eby met with Buchanan and Little and they are taking a “serious look” at a letter from the two mayors.

Boyle says they “agree things aren’t working with Metro Vancouver, and that changes need to be made,” adding that’s why the province appointed a representative to the governance committee for the regional district.

The mayors’ letter to the premier, which they shared alongside their statement, says “the disconnect between Metro Vancouver’s spending priorities and the fiscal capacity of member municipalities has reached a breaking point.”

The statement issued Thursday says the mayors aren’t disputing Metro Vancouver’s cost-sharing for the original budget for the facility, but the region is treating the formula “like a blank cheque.”

“When Metro Vancouver approved its cost-sharing formula, municipalities could calculate their own costs from a defined budget and scope,” it says.

“There was no open-ended commitment to absorb whatever cost overruns Metro Vancouver incurs, no matter how far a project drifts.”

The North Shore mayors say local governments in B.C. must meet strict requirements before taking on significant long-term debt.

But they say Metro Vancouver’s sewerage borrowing operates under a different framework, allowing it to “borrow and assign the debt” to municipalities.

“No direct elector vote is required from the communities that will carry that debt for a generation,” Buchanan and Little say in the statement.

“Our residents bear the financial burden of Metro’s borrowing decisions without the democratic safeguards that provincial law otherwise guarantees.”

The mayors say it amounts to a “fundamental accountability gap.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 5, 2026.