Top Liberals contacted about agency probe
Metro Vancouver pens letter to cabinet ministers
OTTAWA • At a time when
the federal Liberals are under attack over alleged political interference in the Snc-lavalin affair, a B.C. regional district appears to have asked two cabinet ministers to intervene in a Competition Bureau investigation because they share the same goals on climate policy.
Metro Vancouver, which provides services to 21 municipalities and a First Nation in the greater Vancouver region, wrote to Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains and Environment Minister Catherine Mckenna last week complaining about the “significant resources” it has had to expend because of a Competition Bureau investigation that is underway without its “meaningful input.”
The federal Competition Bureau is investigating the Greater Vancouver Sewerage and Drainage District, a Metro Vancouver corporation, for anticompetitive behaviour, one private com
pany’s CEO calls “medieval.”
Metro Vancouver’s letter
to the ministers argues that its policies, including the three bylaws under investigation, are aligned with the
federal Liberals’ environment plan and asks for meetings with both ministers to discuss the probe, lamenting that the Competition Bureau “appears to be focused narrowly on competition related to the provision of garbage disposal services without regard to social objectives (including the protection of the environment).”
The letter notes the “natural leadership” governments can demonstrate on environmental issues and warns the consequences of
the bureau’s investigation
have “the potential to undermine the coordinated efforts of all orders of government to fight climate change, reduce greenhouse gases and pursue a clean environment.”
Others have warned Metro Vancouver has put itself into “conflict,” because it both regulates the waste management industry and acts as a player, drawing its own revenue from waste disposal.
The Competition Bureau is a law enforcement agency that investigates cases on an economic, not social, basis.
Its independence is enshrined in Canadian law and a minister can only intervene under rare circumstances, such as asking the competitions commissioner to revisit a case that has been dropped. “The Bureau’s investigation is ongoing and no decision has been made as to whether to pursue any enforcement action, and if so, what that action might be,” said spokeswoman Jayme Albert.
Don Bradley, a spokesman for Metro Vancouver, said the letter to ministers was only intended to communicate the purpose of its regulatory framework.
“These are the ministers whose mandate concerns the protection of the environment and promotion of innovation — the very same topics addressed by the by
laws,” he said. Bradley didn’t
address questions about why Metro Vancouver was dismayed by the Competition
Bureau’s process.
“We are aware that the Competition Bureau is looking into certain Metro Vancouver practices. As the Bureau is an independent law enforcement agency, it would be inappropriate for us to comment further,” said
Bains’s press secretary Dani
Keenan.
Ralph Mcrae is the CEO of Revolution Infrastructure, one of the private competitors that is providing input
in the Competition Bureau’s
investigation. He expressed concern about the implications of the letter sent to Bains and Mckenna.
“What about SNC
Lavalin? I mean, I don’t
know a whole lot of the details about that Lavalin case,
but isn’t that, what, somebody tried to get a minister to interfere with a protected independent investigation?”
said Mcrae. “I mean, that’s
what that letter smacked of to me, trying to get federal political ministers to step in and intercede in an independent investigation.”
The apparent appeal for political backing from Ottawa comes as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his federal Liberal government continue to be embroiled in a scandal over an alleged attempt to interfere in the criminal prosecution of Montreal engineering firm Snc-lavalin.
A government official ex
plained Bains’s department
is still working on a response to the letter and no meeting request has been received yet. But if a meeting was held the ministers would not be at liberty to talk to Metro Vancouver about the investigation. “We would want to
ensure that there’s not any
political interference being seen, or actually happening, that we just let the process play out,” said the official.
The Competition Bureau is investigating three bylaws Metro Vancouver passed in 2017. One, already in effect, imposes new fees on waste brought to disposal facilities. The other two, still pending approval from the B.C. environment minister, change licensing requirements for private facilities and commercial waste haulers.
Mcrae, who runs an organics and paper recycling facility in South Vancouver, explained that the two pending bylaws would put time restraints on private licensees that could cripple their ability to secure long-term funding — restraints Metro Vancouver would not apply to its own properties.
The Waste Management Association of B.C. and the B.C. Chamber of Commerce have both publicly argued
that Metro Vancouver’s plan
is anticompetitive.
WE WOULD WANT TO ENSURE THAT THERE’S NOT ANY POLITICAL INTERFERENCE BEING SEEN.