The Pacific National Exhibition is back in Vancouver — and with it, a controversial exhibit put on by the Metro Vancouver Regional District.
Visitors to the Metro exhibit are treated to free popcorn, family-friendly games and performances with an educational focus on key services, including water and sewage treatment.
They can also enter a contest to win an e-bike and participate in a dance-off with Metro Vancouver mascots Pee and Poo (yes, really).
Putting on the exhibit during the two-week fair comes with a $450,000 price tag, a cost that has critics like New Westminster Coun. Daniel Fontaine calling foul.
“I can tell you from the amount of taxpayers that I’ve talked to in the last number of days about this, they’re feeling pretty crappy,” he said.
“Metro Vancouver is facing a huge financial crunch. With the massive cost overruns at the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant and to be spending now nearly half a million dollars on a booth that is by all accounts questionable in terms of its information that it’s providing to the public, it should just end.”
The cost of the exhibit includes a $98,000 sponsorship fee, which Fontaine said seems unnecessary for an organization like Metro Vancouver that already has a monopoly on the services it provides.
He added that other public sector exhibits at the fair, TransLink and BC Hydro among them, have a much smaller footprint comparatively.
In a statement, Metro Vancouver said its exhibit is popular with attendees, drawing about 90,000 visitors over the course of the PNE.
“Reaching the public this way is more cost effective than some open houses, and the level of engagement is deep,” the statement reads.
“When people visit us at the PNE, they see how the small actions they take every day connect them to a huge network of vital services and infrastructure provided by Metro Vancouver. This includes clean air, waste reduction, water conservation, and affordable rental housing.”
Fontaine, however, argued that any booth set up at the PNE will have 90,000 people walk by and questioned whether people were really engaging with the exhibit as much as Metro Vancouver says.
“People go to the PNE to go on the rides, they go to get the amazing deep-fried Mars bars and see the dog show and the concerts,” he said.
“I highly doubt that many people are going to the PNE with the expectation that they’re going to learn about sanitation and toilet flushing and water drinking.”
This year’s exhibit comes as the regional district continues to face questions about the beleaguered North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant, now an estimated $3 billion over budget.
Late last month, the Metro Vancouver board voted to shelve a review of the sewage plant, citing ongoing litigation with the plant’s former contractor.