Should Metro Vancouver board members be elected by the public?
Posted December 12, 2023 2:55 pm.
A New Westminster city councillor wants to change the way Metro Vancouver board members are selected.
Daniel Fontaine says it’s time to see whether the public should elect board representatives.
He and Coun. Paul Minhas presented a motion to New Westminster city council on Monday, asking for councillors to call on the province to “undertake a public consultation process with the aim of including a referendum on the 2026 municipal ballot.”
That referendum would ask voters across the Lower Mainland whether they want to directly elect members of the Metro Vancouver board, or keep the current system, whereby member are appointed by their respective municipalities.
The proposal comes as Vancouver pushes to dismantle the Park Board in that city. The board is made up of elected commissioners, and the change would bring all the work the group does under city council.
“We need to look at the way we’re governing ourselves. I’m not saying everything’s wrong, we do a lot of really good things at Metro Vancouver, like the sewers, like the waters, and some of our regional parks. But when you look at the cost structure at Metro Vancouver and the double-digit, year-over-year increases in things like sewer and water, it’s literally out of control in terms of the costs,” Fontaine told CityNews Tuesday.
He says the board makes a number of decisions that affect locals each day, some of which residents may not even know fall under Metro Vancouver’s jurisdiction. He adds a “very large portion of the tax bill you pay every year” goes to the Metro Vancouver Regional District.
“Metro Vancouver has an impact every single day of your life, but you don’t get to elect a single person that’s actually on the board of directors managing all those tax dollars,” Fontaine explained.
The councillor notes the annual budget for the Metro Vancouver board is $2.6 billion — “which is bigger than the budgets of its biggest members including Vancouver, Surrey, and Burnaby.”
“Voters should be given the option of how the organization is governed and managed,” he said.
With Monday’s vote in New Westminster, the proposal will now be taken to Metro Vancouver as well as the Ministry of Municipal Affairs.
