Committee appointments, communication and who will audit the North Shore wastewater treatment project were some of the concerns about Metro Vancouver governance Richmond city councillors brought up at a special meeting held Tuesday.
Coun. Kash Heed asked the mayor to call the meeting to talk about “Metro Vancouver governance.”
While Mayor Malcolm Brodie started the meeting outlining the functions of Metro Vancouver and how its governance structure works, issues such as why more Richmond councillors don’t sit on regional committees were brought into question.
Currently, only four Richmond city council members — the mayor and Couns. Chak Au, Bill McNulty and Alexa Loo — sit on Metro Vancouver committees.
Coun. Michael Wolfe said he expressed to Brodie his interest in many committees when he was first elected six years ago and again after the 2022 election, but he never got invited to join any.
He pointed out that nine Vancouver city council members sit on committees, and Surrey and Burnaby have eight councillors on committees.
“I think we’re selling ourselves short here at getting coverage and having influence in the region,” Wolfe said.
Brodie explained Wolfe needs to go directly to chair of Metro Vancouver to request to be on a committee as this is how the process is legislated.
“It wasn’t anything to do with me,” Brodie said, to which Wolfe replied that wasn’t communicated to him.
Wolfe also criticized the “board in brief” document city councillors receive about Metro Vancouver decisions, saying it’s “very ineffective” with “nothing related to Richmond” nor how votes were cast.
He added he’d like to see more involvement by city council before issues are dealt with at the Metro Vancouver decision-making board.
“I think we don’t do a good job of that at this table,” Wolfe said.
Coun. Carol Day also said she didn’t know there were opportunities to sit on Metro Vancouver committees, but Brodie said she’s been told verbally and by memo.
“And I can show you the memo if you don’t believe me,” he said.
How Metro Vancouver will scrutinize the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant construction — whose costs have almost quadrupled – was also questioned by Richmond city councillors.
The newly elected chair of Metro Vancouver, Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley, has recommended Burnaby realtor and philanthropist, William McCarthy, conduct a review of the project.
Coun. Andy Hobbs said he wanted to know what the process was to choose McCarthy, whether there was a request for proposals or a vetting process and who the top candidates were.
He said the report from Hurley about McCarthy’s possible appointment sounded like the process might have been “a little short circuited.”
“It’s not a reflection of the individual, for me, it’s more about the process: what was it, who applied, how were they vetted,” he said. “Because, from what I saw, it looked like there was just one name put down in front of us. It sounds like an OK person — lots of education and things ticked off, but really heavily on the real estate side.”
McNulty called Hurley’s recommendation a “major mistake” as the new chair of Metro Vancouver, although he added he does “respect” what the chair did because “he’s entitled to do that.”
Brodie noted that the performance advisor's position hasn’t been decided or even debated by the board yet. It’s on the Metro Vancouver agenda for Friday.
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