‘Unacceptable risk:’ Metro Van chair defends against capital project criticism

Metro Vancouver board chair and Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley responds to recent criticism from Coquitlam Coun. Brent Asmundson. To read Asmundson’s opinion piece, click here.

In a March 2, 2025 opinion piece in the Tri-Cities Dispatch, Coquitlam Councillor Brent Asmundson provided his thoughts on Metro Vancouver’s risk management and project delivery practices. We would like to clarify our approach to building infrastructure, including how we systematically manage the risks of natural disasters and other emergencies.

Infrastructure Performance Requirements

Every day, more than three million people across the region use more than one billion litres of drinking water. It is treated as soon as it leaves the reservoirs, then distributed throughout the region by more than 520 kilometres of water mains. Some of these mains are buried deep beneath Burrard Inlet and the Fraser River. The resulting wastewater is flushed down the drain. That wastewater contains bacteria and contaminants that can be harmful to human health and the environment. Sewer mains carry this wastewater to Metro Vancouver’s five wastewater treatment plants, where it is treated, tested, and released into the region’s waterbodies. At these plants, we also recover resources like heat, electricity, or renewable natural gas.

Clean water is essential for human health. The infrastructure designed to keep it that way must protect human and environmental health: even if there is an emergency.

Councillor Asmundson incorrectly claims that at Metro Vancouver, “very high standards are approved in a theoretical manner and then applied holistically against a wide variety of situations.” In fact, levels of service for new infrastructure are applied specifically to match unique project requirements. Metro Vancouver has a long-standing practice of using expert panels and doing value engineering reviews throughout the lifecycle of large capital projects. These practices help ensure we’re meeting the need while considering value for money. In many cases, the standards are established as regulation by other orders of government and by local governments in their interpretation of building code requirements through their bylaws.

We also assess our infrastructure on a routine basis to determine risks to the public and the environment. This allows us to prioritize what infrastructure we are going to put money toward.

Through these assessments, we’ve looked at the seismic vulnerabilities of our drinking water reservoir dams, water main marine crossings, and other water and wastewater infrastructure. As one example, we need to upgrade several crossings from the North Shore to the rest of the region if we want to deliver drinking water to the region following even a moderate earthquake. Not doing upgrades and only fixing breaks as they occur means that we risk residents not having access to potable water for long periods of time. This is an unacceptable risk because if a crossing fails multiple cities lose water, as opposed to a municipal line break where only a few blocks may be affected.

Risk Analysis and Assignment

Councillor Asmundson refers to Metro Vancouver issuing bid packages of “many hundreds of pages” to contractors, which result in higher bid costs. It is hard to imagine that any significant construction project for regional infrastructure, could be bid on without hundreds of pages of substantial information to accurately set out the scope of the project. Without this, it is not feasible for contractors to properly bid on the work, and Metro Vancouver would be subject to significant claims for unforeseen work.

The response to Metro Vancouver bidding opportunities reflects the challenging market conditions across Canada, and not an inappropriate risk transfer or the difficulty of filling out bid packages.

Councillor Asmundson also inaccurately claims that Metro Vancouver transfers all project risk to its contractors, and that an analysis should be undertaken to determine who is best situated to assume risk.

We are acutely aware of the need to assess and manage risk on a project-specific basis. To strengthen our ability to do this, Metro Vancouver established a Project Management Office in 2020, focused on the continuous improvement of capital project delivery practices. We evaluate whether Metro Vancouver, the contractor, or both parties are best placed to assume identified risk and uncertainties for a project, and structure our procurement documents and contracts accordingly. We incorporate feedback from the consulting and contractor community into our procurement strategies to optimize market fairness and strive to provide the best value for the region. Metro Vancouver follows industry best practices, such as market sounding, and liaises regularly with industry across BC and North America to get feedback on various items including bidding practices and risk transfer allocation. We also proactively respond to feedback from the industry about construction risks, and are subsequently expanding our project delivery model portfolio to include new contract models for infrastructure delivery.

Metro Vancouver’s services have always been about providing the very best quality of life to our region’s residents. In total, residents receive all of Metro Vancouver’s services for the equivalent, on average, of $73 per month per household. While the strain of rising costs has been felt across the region, we will continue to work hard to keep rates as affordable as possible while also ensuring our infrastructure and services meet the needs of a rapidly growing population.