On Tuesday (Dec. 13), Metro Vancouver announced who sits where on its standing committees which govern the often unseen yet vital aspects of regional infrastructure.
The regional government, made up of 21 municipalities from Lions Bay to Langley Township, an electoral area and Tsawwassen First Nation, plans for regional services such as waste, drinking water, urban growth and affordable housing.
Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley was appointed as chair of the liquid waste committee and as a member of three more committees and two task forces.
As committee chair, Hurley will earn $490 per month.
Coun. Sav Dhaliwal of the Burnaby Citizens Association (BCA) lost his position as chair of Metro Vancouver’s board of directors, which means a loss of the chair’s yearly $98,076 remuneration.
Delta Mayor George Harvie, who once served as Burnaby’s deputy city manager in the 1990s, defeated Dhaliwal and North Vancouver Mayor Linda Buchanan for the chair’s seat in a secret-ballot vote. Board chairs serve for a one-year term.
Dhaliwal’s deciding vote earlier this year to industrialize Surrey’s South Campbell Heights agricultural lands drew criticism from environmentalists and Semiahmoo First Nation.
Dhaliwal was appointed to chair the Indigenous relations committee, which advises on relationship-building and reconciliation efforts with local First Nations and treaty negotiations.
Hurley was named as a member of other committees including:
- Finance committee (monitoring and advising financial policies, the annual budget and long-term financial plans for the districts)
- Mayors committee (advises on governance of all Metro Vancouver districts and intergovernmental relationships)
- Regional planning committee (advises on regional growth strategy, land use, guides policy on agriculture and the environment)
- Financial plan task force (advises on the revision of the five-year financial plan)
- George Massey Crossing task force (advises on the B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure’s Highway 99 tunnel program between Richmond and Delta)
Hurley, Dhaliwal and Coun. Pietro Calendino are Burnaby’s three voting representatives on Metro Vancouver’s board of directors.
Burnaby councillors on Metro Vancouver committees
- Coun. Pietro Calendino (BCA): Regional parks committee, which guides issues related to regional parks (like Burnaby Lake Regional Park) and the zero-waste committee, which advises on solid waste management and initiatives to reduce the volume of solid waste and enhance recycling efforts
- Coun. Alison Gu (BCA): Climate action committee, dealing with air quality, energy, climate change adaptation and the sustainability innovation fund
- Coun. Joe Keithley (Green Party): Water committee, dealing with the drinking water management plan drinking water conservation plan, quality control and monitoring water consumption trends
- Coun. Richard Lee (One Burnaby): Invest Vancouver management board, which provides “strategic oversight and guidance for the regional economic prosperity service,” a body that focuses on attracting investment, “high-quality jobs,” and new tax revenues for infrastructure that would benefit the region
- Coun. Maita Santiago (BCA): Regional culture committee, which works on Metro Vancouver’s cultural grants program and promoting culture throughout the region
- Coun. Daniel Tetrault (BCA): Housing committee, which advises on Metro Vancouver’s housing planning and policy service and its housing corporation
Board and committee members make $490 for meetings up to four hours and $980 for meetings longer than four hours.
The only committees on which there isn’t a Burnaby representative are the electoral area committee and the flood resiliency committee
BCA Coun. James Wang was not appointed to any of the Metro Vancouver committees.
