Contractor files lawsuit against Metro Vancouver over termination of North Shore wastewater contract
CTV
The original contractor for the behind-schedule and over-budget North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant project is suing Metro Vancouver for the wrongful termination of its contract, as well as millions of dollars in payments it alleges the regional district wrongfully withheld.
The original contractor for the behind-schedule and over-budget North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant project is suing Metro Vancouver for the wrongful termination of its contract, as well as millions of dollars in payments it alleges the regional district wrongfully withheld.
The nearly 100-page lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court on Thursday by Acciona Wastewater Solutions LP alleges that Metro Vancouver - formally the Greater Vancouver Sewerage and Drainage District - "repeatedly and wrongfully conducted itself" during the project's design phase "in a manner that subverted the achievement of the commercial purposes."
It also alleges that the regional district was responsible for the vast majority of delays to the project's timeline and demanded that the contractor meet a deadline that it knew was "physically impossible to achieve."
The allegations in the lawsuit have not been proven in court, and Metro Vancouver has not yet filed a response to the claims.
The regional governance agency has previously said Acciona "abandoned" the project, leaving it with no choice but to cancel the contract.
Metro Vancouver's board approved the selection of a new general contractor for the project earlier this month.
The North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant was originally scheduled for completion in December 2020, but Metro Vancouver agreed to revise the project contract in 2019 to give Acciona an extra two-and-a-half years to complete the work.
