B.C.’s three biggest business groups are hoping to use an impasse between the city of Coquitlam and Metro Vancouver over the controversial regional growth strategy for a last-ditch chance to change the plan.

A coalition of the British Columbia Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of B.C. and the Urban Development Institute has asked Metro municipalities to allow them to participate in a dispute process to resolve Coquitlam’s concerns, saying they weren’t given the chance to be heard during the four years of public consultations.

Maureen Enser, executive director of Urban Development Institute Pacific Region, said the plan is too bureaucratic, gives too much power to the regional district and doesn’t focus enough on ensuring future economic issues such as providing affordable housing in transit corridors, industrial land around the ports and a cost-benefit analysis.

"Without our input the plan will not achieve its sustainable objectives," Enser said, but wouldn’t give specific examples on what the coalition would recommend to change the plan. "It’s important for small businesses as well as large corporations that we have something to contribute."

But Derek Corrigan, chairman of Metro’s regional planning committee, said the coalition has had ample opportunity to participate and is just trying to cover its "negligence" because it didn’t get involved earlier.

He said they won’t be allowed to get involved now.

"The dispute is between Coquitlam and Metro Vancouver and they’re not interested in opening this up for discussion with the business community or anybody else," he said. "They are not, at this stage, parties to the dispute."

The business coalition’s attempts to enter the fray arose after the provincial government last week ordered Metro to engage in a 60-day non-binding dispute process to deal with Coquitlam concerns about the regional plan, starting by May 16.

Metro directors had sough binding arbitration arguing the plan could be in jeopardy if the couldn’t resolve the issues before November’s municipal elections. "It puts us in an extremely awkward position because we’re going to be forced into our next session with a new board," Corrigan said last week.

Metro Vancouver is required under provincial legislation to prepare a regional growth management strategy with its member municipalities, all which must approve the plan.

The proposed strategy, which aims to curb urban sprawl, build density around transit hubs and protect agricultural land for local food production, has already been approved by 18 member municipalities, the Tsawwassen First Nation, TransLink and the Fraser Valley and Squamish-Lillooet regional districts.

But Coquitlam argues the plan has been watered down by each municipality, is not consistent across Metro Vancouver, and gives too much control to the regional district.

Municipalities that accept the plan will have a couple of years to develop a regional context statement to show how they plan to meet the goals and outcomes of the strategy.

Chris DeMarco, Metro’s regional development division manager, said if municipalities fail to follow the new plan — or seek amendments to their context statements — they could be subject to a dispute resolution.

This is different from the old plan, which was so loosely and broadly written that municipalities were able to circumvent the rules, she said.