One of the CTF’s many public policy victories in recent years in BC was the defeat of the Metro Vancouver waste incinerator. This had boondoggle written all over it, and despite the best efforts of Metro kingdom builders like Greg Moore and Malcolm Brodie (“From the people who tried to bring you a TransLink sales tax!”), the incinerator project fell apart.

We opposed it. Business opposed it. A few city councillors across the region opposed it. The Fraser Valley opposed it. BC Hydro made it clear they weren’t going to subsidize it by overpaying for the power it generated.

As I wrote in 2014: “It's too expensive, it's too risky, and its business case looks to over-promise and under-deliver.”

Anyway, the project fell apart for many good reasons – most of which had been clearly articulated by opponents from the first meeting it was introduced.

Now we’re learning that Metro blew $4.5 million on the project anyway. From today’s Province:

A Metro Vancouver decision to halt a half-billion-dollar waste incinerator procurement process has cost taxpayers $4.5 million and led to speculation on whether a big burner is needed in the first place.

However, last December, after spending $4.5 million on procurement, metro realized there wasn’t enough garbage to stoke the proposed 370,000-tonne-a-year facility and halted the process.

Scant information has been provided on how the $4.5 million was spent.

“The money was primarily for professional services such as engineering and legal. Details remain behind closed doors,” said metro spokesman Don Bradley.

He said bids were received by almost two dozen firms, which were responsible for their own expenses. A technical advisory team was employed by metro, as well as a financial advisory team.

The region’s third-party expert panel consisted of four additional researchers with their work over 17 months consisting of 26 “activities,” from answering emails to attending meetings.

A fairness adviser was also hired to “ensure the overall objectivity” of the process and guard against lobbying.

This is the problem when dumb ideas are allowed to take hold in unaccountable bureaucracies like Metro Vancouver. They end up costing taxpayers real money.