Metro Vancouver Regional District to look at cutting directors’ pay
Posted February 28, 2025 9:51 am.
At Friday’s Metro Vancouver Regional District meeting, the board will address a motion that could bring in sweeping changes around financial transparency.
MVRD Director and Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West is behind the motion, which was originally submitted in January. It’s part of a nearly 1,500-page meeting agenda that details a number of improvements to the region.
West tells 1130 NewsRadio on Friday morning that his proposal is focused on the remuneration bylaw.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO 1130 NEWSRADIO VANCOUVER LIVE!The goal is to cut the current meeting stipend by 50 per cent, from $547 for a four-hour meeting down to $247.50, and to eliminate the stipend for any meetings that are longer than four hours. It also calls for a reduction in the total number of MVRD meetings for which a stipend is paid by a minimum of 50 per cent from 2024 totals.
“And eliminating the double meeting fee that currently exists. I’d also suggest that we should be looking at an option for renumeration that moves entirely away from this ‘per-meeting’ model that they use,” West said.
I recognize none of this was created by this board; these are all things that have been inherited and have been in place for several decades, nonetheless, I think there’s a responsibility to take action.”
In addition to the finances, West also wants to cut the number of committees and the number of overall meetings.
“Right now, Metro Vancouver, in my view, has way too many committees. There are 16 of them. It’s way too large a number, and I suggest reducing that by half and reducing the number of meetings by half.”
There’s a third part to his motion, which West describes as the most important.
“It calls for an independent external core service review of Metro Vancouver to find savings, efficencies and areas for reduction that will result in less taxpayer money going to the organization,” he explained.
The reason I think this is important is because Metro Vancouver is a very, very large organization and it has over, again, many, many decades, grown beyond its original purpose and mandate. I’m one person who believes that it needs to get back to what it was originally created for, which is to provide core utility services to the region.”
West claims some directors don’t agree with him and think the government body should have a more “expansive role.”
“There are times when you can kind of tinker around the edges and fix what you got to fix, and then move on. There are times when you need to be much bigger, and I believe this is one of those times,” he shared.
This motion comes just a few days after New Westminster city council passed a motion so the public can look over the financial records of elected officials in the Royal City on an annual basis. Richmond has greenlit a similar motion.
Just over a month ago, the premier weighed in on this controversy after it was revealed that some mayors were earning, in some cases, more than him by serving multiple appointments.
At the time, David Eby said, “I do have confidence in the independent governance review that’s underway at Metro Vancouver. We’ll make sure that the scope includes all aspects of governance.”
The MVRD has been under months of scrutiny, with questions over international trips, high salaries, and oversight repeatedly coming up since April of last year.
The beleaguered district has also faced heavy criticism over its handling of the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant. The estimated cost of that project ballooned to $3.86 billion last year.
With files from Dean Recksiedler.
