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Jackson says Metro Vancouver is overstepping its boundaries

It’s not within the mandate of the regional district – period. That’s what Delta Coun. Lois Jackson has to say about Metro Vancouver’s Regional Prosperity Initiative, aimed at promoting economic development.
lois jackson
Delta Coun. Lois Jackson

It’s not within the mandate of the regional district – period.

That’s what Delta Coun. Lois Jackson has to say about Metro Vancouver’s Regional Prosperity Initiative, aimed at promoting economic development.

The public-private collaboration will cost the district $500,000 next year and eventually $2.5 million to $4 million annually. A steering committee is working on a three-year plan that hopes to obtain funding from the federal and provincial governments as well as businesses, institutions and local government.

“Bang for the buck? Absolutely not and I’m opposed to it,” Jackson told the Optimist this week.

“It’s not something we’ve ever been involved in,” said Jackson, who served as Metro Vancouver board chair from 2006 to 2011. “We’re usually involved in planning, air quality, sewer, water and those core services. This is expanding outside the preview of a regional district. It’s not in the jurisdiction of Metro (Vancouver) to be going out and orchestrating this and I’m in the process of finding out how this all started.”

Saying it is also a waste of money, Jackson told a Metro Vancouver board of directors meeting last Friday that the initiative should be removed from the district’s budget.

According to Metro Vancouver, An Economic Scorecard by the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade and Conference Board of Canada “underscores the urgency to implement a more collaborative regional approach to resolving issues affecting the region’s prosperity, like housing, affordability, transit and transportation.”

A regional mobile business licensing project and a regional registration portal for filming are two programs that have come from the initiative so far.