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NORTH VANCOUVER District staff
have been asked to explain a $20-mil-
lion-dollar discrepancy between staff
figures and those of an outside auditor
on the value of the municipaiity’s land

bank.

And while Mayor Murray Dykeman and
municipal manager Mel Palmer insist the $20-
inillion figure is nothing to get excited about, one
councillar says he “has lost all confidence in
staf”

The News has learned that at a March 11 in-

camera meeting, from which all senior staff other
than the director of legislative services (munici-
pal clerk) were excluded, the district's external
auditor was requested:
Mito review and verify the land development fig-
ures in the Capital Management Plan (CMP); and
@ identify where the land is and how much of it
there is, with and without Cove and Mountain
Forest.

The March 28 audit provided by Doane
Raymond. chartered accountants, concludes:
“The potential net revenue from the sale of dis-
tict-owned land for the period Jan. 1, 1996, to
Dec. 31, 2015,-excluding Cove and Mountain
Forest, totals $142,547,1002"

That Ggure is approximately $22 million less
than the reported value of developable lands con-

NORTH VANCOUVER
DISTRICT COUNCIL
By Martin Millerchip

tained in the district's CMP.

Council has since asked staff to report on the
apparent discrepancy by April 24.

Mayer Murray Dykeman refused comment
on the implications of the audit until “after coun-
cif has come to some conclusion.”

But Dykeman described the audit as “an addi-
tional update for council’s information” adding,
“We're not necessarily short. Any of these num-
bers can change us we progress. Values change
from year to year.”

Coun. Ernie Crist was far more upset,

“I've lost all confidence, all confidence, in this
staff,” Crist told the News.

’ “At the ume when the original figures were
given to us they were the basis for our capital
budget and our business plan. {f a few months
Jater those figures are $22 million less then the
budget und the business plan is out the window.”

But that’s nut the case according to Palmer.

“Pm pretty’ confident right now tbat the net
proceeds of district land sales will be pretty close
to what is contained in our financial plan short of
council making any Aew hind-use decisions.”

Palmer said a number of variables, when
taken together, could easily explain the $22-mil-
lion difference. He will be meeting with the audi-
tors in the next few days “to say ‘show me where
this occurred,’ ”

Palmer said factors to be double-checked
included the actual land base used in both the
CMP und the audit and the inflation factor
assigned to the distric’’s costs for devefopment.

Anne MacLean, the district’s former budget
officer who is now treasurer for the Municipality
of Delta, said she is not surprised by a $20-mil-
lion variable in the land valuation: “Assumptions
about sale prices of lots will change. Everybody’s
assumptions will be different based on their esti-
mation of future sale prices.”

MacLean pointed out that a difference of only
$10,000 in the estimated average value of single
land units would create an $18.5-million differ-
ence in the total value.

Bruce Milley, a panner in Doane Raymond,
refused comment on his firm's methodology
without clearance from Dykeman. Milley’s audit
notes: “This report is for the exclusive use of
mayor and council and is not to be circulated to
third parties without our prior consent.”

The comment infuriates Crist.

“We paid for it. it’s our property. ‘The public
has a right to know what their land is worth. ts
the people's land.”