Costs quadruple to $3.86 billion for North Shore sewage treatment plant
The budget for the North Shore’s new sewage treatment plant has almost quadrupled in size, Metro Vancouver has revealed — to almost $4 billion.
Metro Vancouver released the updated costs for the North Shore Wastewater Treatment plant project on Friday afternoon, that put revised project costs at $3.86 billion — over $2.8 billion more than the last budget of $1.058 billion in 2021.
North Shore taxpayers are expected to be on the hook for a substantial part of that.
Preliminary figures put the increased costs to “average” households in North Vancouver and West Vancouver at $725 per year for the next 30 years. Taxpayers in other regions of the Lower Mainland will also have to pay more for the project, in amounts ranging from $70 a year to $140 a year for 15 years.
Details of exactly who will pay what and when those increases will hit North Shore taxpayers will be discussed at Metro’s budget meeting in April. The amounts could also change if the federal and provincial governments agree to contribute more cash to the problemplagued project.
“We are acutely aware of concerns around how this cost may impact the property taxes and utility rates of residents on the North Shore in particular,” said Metro Vancouver Commissioner Jerry Dobrovolny.
The Metro Vancouver board voted to approve the new budget for the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant in a closed-door meeting Friday morning before a public announcement was made Friday afternoon.
The new cost projections come after a special task force was struck to examine problems facing the project and make recommendations to the board.
The massive ballooning in costs have been linked to everything from labour to the price of concrete, pipe and electrical wire — and having to go back and fix “a tremendous number of deficiencies” left by the project’s original contractor, Acciona, said Dobrovolny.
Problems included significant structural deficiencies, according to Metro. The regional government indicated the project was also far less advanced than Metro had been led to believe by Acciona.
The North Shore sewage plant is now the largest project the regional government has ever undertaken.
“It’s a huge project. It’s a very large budget,” Dobrovolny said. But he stressed, “This project and this program are not optional.”
The existing Lions Gate sewage treatment plant is at the end of its life and its basic level of primary treatment does not meet federal environmental standards, he said.
About $600 million has already been spent on the project. Half of the 40,000 cubic metres of concrete that will go into the project has been completed.
“The reality is, the cost to deliver the program has changed significantly since its initial estimate 13 years ago,” said Dobrovolny. He said the new budget took into consideration the cumulative impacts of inflation, competition for labour, and “the significant work that was needed to address design and construction deficiencies.”
Metro said it now expects work on the sewage treatment plant to wrap up in 2030 — 10 years behind the original schedule. When finished, the plant will provide sewage treatment to a future population of about 300,000 residents.
Metro officials declined to comment on how the project was built without large structural problems being flagged earlier.