B.C. premier encourages audit of Metro Vancouver

The North Shore wastewater treatment plant is over budget by more than three billion dollars and taxpayers will pay heavily for it.

However, the Chief Administrative Officer at Metro Vancouver, Jerry Dobrovolny, continues to receive a huge salary and travel extensively.

Now the province is indicating it has had enough.

At a Monday morning press conference, B.C. Premier David Eby commented “I think that the time has really come for Metro Vancouver to hire an auditor, independent of them, to dig into this and provide a report to everybody. I’ve heard suggestions that the Auditor General could be appropriate.”

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When Global News asked about the province ensuring accountability for taxpayers, Eby responded, “If the elected officials at Metro Vancouver can’t ensure taxpayer accountability for expenses being incurred there, obviously the province will have to step in.”

Eby would not say when exactly the province would step in.

In an emailed statement, Metro Vancouver told Global News that at this time it has no plans for an audit by an outside agency.

Dobrovolny earned a base salary in 2023 of more than $451,000 plus $222,000 for retroactive pay and health and pension benefits. Metro Vancouver did not respond to repeated requests for a detailed breakdown. His expenses totaled $37,000.

The total cost to taxpayers was more than $711,000.

Last week Dobrovolny joined two others from Metro Vancouver and four mayors for a week-long trip to Amsterdam for the International Conference on Urban Drainage.

The total of those costs is still unknown.