As recent media coverage has highlighted, paid elected officials attend Metro board, committee and other meetings representing their municipalities, but they are also paid by the regional district. In Lions Bay, Berry and Broughton are the self-appointed Director and Alternate Director for the village.
Directors are paid $575 to attend meetings lasting up to 4 hours, double if they are longer. Many last less than 2 hours.
Berry was paid $14,409 by Metro Vancouver in 2024 and Broughton received $2,670 but as one can see on agenda packages neither has ever provided a report to council on matters of relevance to Lions Bay.
In 2022, in the lead up to the October election a Berry-Broughton political supporter called out the then mayor for not providing reports, saying he was paid to go to meetings but there was nothing to show for it.
Why does this matter? In 2023 Metro was considering a further 10 year commitment in which funding automatically allocated to its member municipalities by the Provincial Government based on populations would be allocated to Metro transit projects. The agreement was signed in 2024.
Neither Berry or Broughton provided this information to council.
Why was this important for Lions Bay? Some of the largest multi-million dollar grants available in BC from the UBCM for infrastructure projects, including water, drainage, recreation, fire halls and fire trucks are not available to Lions Bay as part of Metro Vancouver due to this agreement. Other small, rural communities typically receive 100% funding from this source.
Had the information come to council in 2023 when negotiations were in progress, perhaps Lions Bay could have opted out but now it is too late, the agreement runs to 2034.
The kicker? In the Metro Board meeting in which this new 10-year agreement was approved, without consulting council Ken Berry voted in favor, against the interests of our community.
