Flickr Image
Metro Vancouver officials have come under fire recently over travel expenses, with local Tri-Cities representatives among the biggest spenders.
In total, the Tri-Cities' mayor and six city council members have spent more than $106,000 in 2023, including on expensive trips to conferences in Australia, Ireland, Finland, Chicago and Boston.
A group of city councillors criticising Metro Vancouver's governance structure is focusing on international travel costs amid billion-dollar cost overruns on two proposed wastewater treatment plants in North Vancouver and Richmond.
New Westminster city councillor Daniel Fontaine said in an interview with Global News that Metro Vancouver has “almost a travel addiction.”
“There seems to be a disconnect between the people making the decisions about international flights and the people who are paying the fees,” Fontaine said.
Total spending on Metro Vancouver's 41-member board came to $227,000, but the top five spenders, three of whom are from the Tri-Cities, spent nearly $153,000, or 67 per cent.
The board's spending has soared by more than 60 percent since 2019.
Delta Mayor George Harvie, who served as Metro Vancouver's board president until he was fired by city council in May, canceled a trip to Amsterdam for a five-day conference on the levee system in the wake of the investigation.
Harvey has spent more than $31,938 on travel in 2023, the third-highest total on the committee. He's already spent $32,000 in 2024, with another $5,300 on flights to Europe, according to Global News.
But two Tri-Cities mayors, Anmore Mayor John McEuen and Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West, have budgeted bigger budgets for 2023 than Harvey, and both are currently attending the Amsterdam conference.
McEwen, who is Metro Vancouver's vice-chairman, spent more on travel than any other councillor last year, with travel expenses totalling $49,239.
In a statement to the Dispatch, McEuen said 2023 marks the first year Metro Vancouver board members have been able to attend meetings regularly since COVID-19.
“Current travel levels are comparable to pre-pandemic levels,” he said, “but travel costs have increased overall as inflation and other economic factors have driven up airline, hotel and related expenses.”
McEwen added that expenses also included travel to lobby state and federal governments to secure grant funding for major infrastructure and housing projects, including $250 million for the Iona Island Wastewater Treatment Plant project in Richmond.
Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West, who is chair of Metro Vancouver's finance committee and vice-chair of the mayoral committee, had the second-highest spending on the council with $33,247.
West described 2023 as a “unique and special year” because of requests from Metro Vancouver to attend more meetings. “Metro expenses have always been very low,” he said.
McEwen and West's most expensive trips involved international conferences: the 2023 Asia-Pacific Cities Summit in Brisbane, Australia, and the Cities and Local Government Alliance Cultural Summit in Dublin, Ireland.
Combined, airfare and travel expenses for both mayors totaled more than $51,000.
The fifth biggest spender on the Metro Vancouver board was Coquitlam city councillor Craig Hodge, vice-chair of the Zero Waste committee, who spent about $18,200 on trips to Finland and the United States.
Hodge spent about $9,200 to attend the World Circular Economy Forum in Helsinki and about $5,000 to attend WasteCon 2023 in Boston.
McEuen and Port Coquitlam city councillor Darrell Penner also attended a special park district forum in Chicago, where the pair spent more than $9,000.
West's travel expenses before 2023 haven't been as significant, spending just $3,200 to attend two other conferences in the United States since joining the Metro Vancouver board in 2019, while former Port Coquitlam mayor Greg Moore spent more than $24,000 in 2018.
The same can't be said for McEwen, who spent about $20,000 on travel in 2019, including a trip to Germany where he spent more than $8,500.
Meanwhile, Hodge spent more than $18,000 between 2018 and 2023, including conference trips to San Diego, Portland and Phoenix.
Fontaine and three other city councillors, Linda Annis of Surrey, Kash Heed of Richmond and Ahmed Yousef of Maple Ridge, have called on Premier David Eby to conduct a review of Metro Vancouver's governance, including of future elected boards.
Board members are currently appointed by local governments, a structure Fontaine said leads to a lack of accountability to taxpayers.
