Fruitless legal challenges have cost taxpayers in Richmond, Coquitlam and North Vancouver, and ratepayers across the province, over a million dollars. Taxpayers in Surrey should take note!
Introduction
Long-time readers will be aware that I’ve been on a mission for the last eighteen months. Finally, my quest is over.
In April 2025, I requested that the Cities of Richmond, Coquitlam and North Vancouver disclose how much they had spent on fruitless legal challenges to decisions made by the BC Utilities Commission (BCUC). North Vancouver responded with their figures; the other two cities refused.
I challenged their refusals with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, who ruled that Richmond and Coquitlam had no right to withhold their legal fees in this case, and ordered the Cities to disclose their spending. I have finally received this information.
I also asked the BCUC for the costs it was forced to incur to respond to the challenges, which they provided without delay.
The cost
The costs for the various legal challenges exceeded a million dollars, shown in the table below (more information on the cases is available here.):
The municipalities’ costs will be passed on to their taxpayers, the BCUC’s costs will be paid for by all energy customers in BC.
The mayors of Richmond and Coquitlam retired before the October elections, and can no longer be held accountable by voters. But there may be staff at those Cities with a litigious bent that the new mayors might want to keep a watchful eye on.
The mayor of the City of North Vancouver was re-elected this month, although that City’s spending was the least egregious of the three by some distance. Still, voters in North Vancouver shouldn’t be complacent.
Going forward
It’s not over yet.
The City of Surrey is currently pursuing a BCUC challenge of its own, which the Court of Appeal has agreed to hear in part, although it noted the city’s case was “weak”.
Since Surrey recently elected a “new” mayor (he’s returning for his third time in office), he might care to think about whether this is money well spent. The City’s taxpayers should also take note.
I shall endeavour to find out how much Surrey spent on legal costs once their proceeding is over. Given the precedent the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner has set in ordering Richmond and Coquitlam to divulge their legal spending, Surrey may not be able to hide behind “solicitor-client privilege” to keep its own costs secret.
Conclusion
As I’ve said before, it’s healthy that BCUC decisions should be open to legal challenges.
But municipalities should be open about how much they’re spending on this, and cautious about launching court proceedings with little chance of success.
In my view, this was a million dollars wasted.