Surrey Connect says North Shore wastewater plant cost is $5.5 billion

Surrey Connect councillor Pardeep Kooner says the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant will cost taxpayers $5.5 billion, or $1.6 billion more than the $3.86-billion figure previously reported. At a Sept. 1 campaign news conference for the mayoral slate, she presented a cost timeline of $700 million in 2013, $780 million in 2017, $1.058 billion in 2021, $3.86 billion in 2024 and $5.5 billion today.

Kooner, a chartered accountant, said her $5.5-billion calculation is based on the annual charge every Metro Vancouver household pays for the plant. She said replacing the Iona Wastewater Treatment Plant could cost more than $15 billion to $18 billion. Kooner said she, Mayor Brenda Locke and the Surrey Connect team have called for an inquiry, arguing that determining the real project cost requires examining the numbers independently.

Locke used the event to present the slate’s framework for what it calls reform at Metro Vancouver. She said residents are paying $5.5 billion for a wastewater facility serving fewer than 10 per cent of the region’s population and called for sweeping reform. In April, Surrey council called for a public inquiry into Metro Vancouver after Locke advanced a motion alleging Metro had operated unfairly and oppressively toward, and with disregard for, the interests of the City of Surrey and other member municipalities. She noted the City of Surrey is suing Metro Vancouver.

Surrey Connect’s three-part framework calls for Metro Vancouver to provide only core services, such as water and sewage; for its board to shrink from 41 members to 16, with cities over 350,000 people entitled to two members, those below 350,000 one, and communities below 50,000 electing one member collectively; and for director stipends to be abolished. Locke said Surrey cannot implement the reforms alone, but will press other municipalities to act, and said the province and municipalities could implement the framework together.

Metro Vancouver maintains the plant’s budget remains $3.86 billion and says only part of related costs is borrowed. It says funding comes from federal grants, development cost charges, the Acciona settlement and utility rates. Debt servicing is not normally included in local-government capital-project estimates, although Metro Vancouver’s projected annual rates include it. The organization says no additional increase to residents is expected for the project, and that Kooner has not shared her model or assumptions for its review.