Vancouver's mayor missed 75% of Metro Vancouver's meetings

Vancouver mayor Kennedy Stewart missed 75% of Metro Vancouver Regional District's meetings over four years

Kennedy Stewart (left) and Metro Vancouver Regional District headquarters' main meeting room (right). (Forward Together/Kasian Architecture)

Of the various 60 meetings held by Metro Vancouver Regional District over the four-year term for elected municipal officials, Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart has only attended 15 of them.

Records retrieved by Daily Hive Urbanized show Stewart only attended 25% of the meetings, including 12 of the 48 (25%) scheduled Board meetings and three of the 12 (25%) scheduled Mayors Committee meetings.

He attended two of the three Board meetings held in 2018 after the October election that year, six of the 11 Board meetings in 2019, two of the 13 Board meetings in 2020, one of the 12 Board meetings in 2021, and one of the nine Board meetings in 2022 to date. Instead, Green Party Vancouver city councillor Pete Fry attended a total of 34 Board meetings between 2018 and 2022 on behalf of the mayor as his designated alternate.

For the separate Mayors Committee meetings, he attended both scheduled meetings in 2019 and the single meeting in 2020, which were all meetings he chaired. But he did not attend any of the five meetings in 2021 and the four meetings in 2022 to date.

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But why does this matter? And what exactly does the Regional District do?

The Regional District is an important intergovernmental body that acts as a federation between Metro Vancouver’s 21 local and municipal governments.

It is one of the region’s two most important intergovernmental bodies, with the other being TransLink’s Mayors’ Council, which receives significantly more public attention and scrutiny given the greater public interest in the matters of transportation infrastructure.

On the other hand, with a $1.1-billion annual operating budget for the next fiscal year of 2023, the Regional District plans, operates, and maintains clean drinking water supplies, sewage, and landfill services. It also coordinates important land use strategies between the region’s various jurisdictions, which affects aspects such as housing affordability, transit-oriented development, and industrial land supply.

The Regional District’s capital budget over the coming decades is also comparable to that of TransLink’s ambitious forthcoming public transit expansion plans.

The new replacement Iona Island Wastewater Treatment Plant just northwest of Vancouver International Airport, for instance, will carry a total estimated construction cost of $10.4 billion between its various construction phases from the 2020s to early 2040s. It is one of many major critical infrastructure projects being planned by the Regional District, and it is also by far the largest. This single sewage treatment plant that mainly serves Vancouver will cost more than the SkyTrain extensions of Expo Line Surrey-Langley, Millennium Line Broadway-Arbutus, and Millennium Line Arbutus-UBC combined.

The Iona sewage treatment plant mainly impacts residents and businesses within the City of Vancouver, as it will primarily serve the city (the Regional District has other sewage treatment plants dedicated to serving the remaining areas of Metro Vancouver). Households in the plant’s sewerage service area of Vancouver and the University Endowment Lands — and some parts of Richmond and Burnaby — will see an average additional $400 to $500 annual tax increase to fund the plant’s construction.

When it comes to land use planning, the Regional District performed its Metro 2050 regional growth strategy planning process this past year.

Given that Vancouver is Metro Vancouver’s most populated jurisdiction, and the economic, financial, and cultural hub of the region, the mayor’s low attendance rate in meetings — even with an alternate replacement — raises some eyebrows.

“There had been some chatter amongst Metro members around the mayor’s attendance,” Fry told Daily Hive Urbanized.

“It does seem like a missed leadership opportunity, but arguably I think the mayor sees himself as a lightning rod in that context and perhaps it is easier to pass the job on to other capable hands.”

Fry adds that Vancouver is “quite ably” supported by its intergovernmental staff and the work of Green Party Vancouver city councillor Adriane Carr, who he says coordinates pre-meetings and issues tracking so that Vancouver’s representation is well positioned for context, influencing, and negotiating.

Just like TransLink’s Mayors’ Council, key decisions made by the Regional District’s Board are conducted by weighted votes based on the jurisdiction’s population. Vancouver has a total of seven members on the Board. Other than Carr, other city councillors sitting on the board include the NPA’s Melissa De Genova, OneCity’s Christine Boyle, TEAM’s Colleen Hardwick, Green Party’s Michael Wiebe, and ABC’s Lisa Dominato. All seven Vancouver seats carry a combined weighted total value of 32 votes — the largest number of any jurisdiction, followed by Surrey’s 26 weighted votes.

Fry recalls there was at least one instance when he swapped his participation in a Board meeting at the last minute so that Stewart could attend a vote that was important for Surrey.

“We don’t necessarily vote in lockstep, but I think Carr does a good job of getting us all aligned and mostly rowing in the same direction in a way I’m not sure the mayor would be as capable of,” added Fry.

“I do appreciate the opportunity to attend and participate in the Metro discussions though, as generally I find the intersections of local, regional, and provincial governance to be quite exciting. I did not attend any TransLink meetings on the mayor’s behalf.”

Each elected official who is a member of the body is paid for their participation per meeting, with $490 for a meeting up to four hours and $980 for a meeting over four hours. Fry received this remuneration for the meetings he attended on behalf of Stewart.

Daily Hive Urbanized reach out to Stewart for comment on his attendance, and his party reaffirmed that even with his absence, Vancouver was always represented at the Regional District’s Board meetings.

“In instances where the mayor is unable to attend, his alternate is sent to ensure that the City of Vancouver is well represented. This has been the case with past mayors as well. The Mayor’s Office also works closely with the City of Vancouver’s Intergovernmental Relations department and Metro Vancouver caucus chair Adriane Carr to prepare for meetings and provide support to City of Vancouver representatives attending these meetings,” reads Forward Together’s statement.

However, Stewart had a comparatively higher attendance rate for TransLink’s Mayors’ Council meetings. Based on available records retrieved by Daily Hive Urbanized, a total of 25 Mayors’ Council meetings were scheduled between 2020 and 2022 to date, with Stewart attending at least 15 of the meetings or 60%.

He missed four of the nine Mayors’ Council meetings in 2020, with De Genova attending one missed meeting as his alternate. This includes the critical April 2020 Mayors’ Council meeting, which was the first meeting — held virtually — after the onset of the pandemic, amidst TransLink’s sudden financial crisis from the collapse of ridership.

In 2021, he missed five of 10 Mayors’ Council meetings, with Boyle attending four missed meetings as alternate.

For 2022 to date, there have been six Mayors’ Council meetings, with Stewart missing at least one.

Stewart’s attendance record for both the Regional District and the Mayors’ Council stood out the most of any members.

For the location of any physical meetings, Metro Vancouver Regional District’s headquarters office is located at an office tower at Metropolis at Metrotown mall in Burnaby, and TransLink’s office is next to Sapperton Station in New Westminster. But the meetings have been held virtually since the onset of the pandemic. Both Regional District Board meetings and Mayors’ Council meetings typically happen once a month.

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