The 2014 Teddy Waste Awards have only been out for five days, and already we have a top-shelf contender for the 2015 edition.
Metro Vancouver, for some inexplicable reason, thought adding a $9 million conference centre to their Annacis Island Sewage Treatment Plant would be a good idea. A few years later, the Metro Board has received the numbers and, not surprisingly, it’s a colossal waste of taxpayer money.
A $9-million research centre that Metro Vancouver opened in 2011 at its Annacis Island sewage treatment plant has largely morphed into a costly, underused white elephant that periodically hosts meetings.
Originally to be the first of five Metro "sustainability academies" that have largely fallen by the wayside, the Annacis Wastewater Centre ended up costing regional taxpayers more than expected because UBC never came through on an original pledge to contribute $1 million.
The centre also now faces a $390,000 annual deficit to operate.
"A sewage treatment plant is not really the best place for conventions," said White Rock Mayor Wayne Baldwin, one of the Metro politicians who expressed dismay with the project at a Feb. 28 board meeting. "The hole just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger," Baldwin said, noting the project ballooned in cost from its original estimate of $4 million. "I don't know why we would want to continue with this."
Apparently Metro had suckered the province and feds to put up two-thirds of the construction money, and thought they had UBC on the line to pay $1 million and own/operate it. UBC sobered up at some point, realizing what a waste of money this was, and backed out.
Don’t worry, though. Metro has a plan:
Metro staff and affiliated groups have used the centre for conferences, saving an estimated $40,000 that would have otherwise been spent renting external meeting space.
Metro now aims to rent out the meeting room to other customers to help staunch the red ink. "Staff are aggressively promoting use of the conference facility, and have established competitive rates to encourage this," a staff report says.
No doubt event planners will beat a path to the door of a conference centre, attached to a sewage treatment plant, in an industrial park, miles from the nearest hotel or other amenities, on an island under a bridge. TEDTalks must be calling every hour trying to get in…
Is Canada Off Track?
Canada has problems. You see them at gas station. You see them at the grocery store. You see them on your taxes.
Is anyone listening to you to find out where you think Canada’s off track and what you think we could do to make things better?
You can tell us what you think by filling out the survey