Metro Vancouver's investment attraction agency deemed illegitimate by Surrey | Daily Hive

Metro Vancouver's regional economic development and investment attraction agency deemed illegitimate by City of Surrey

Invest Vancouver

The City of Surrey has filed a petition in the Supreme Court of British Columbia seeking to invalidate the Metro Vancouver Regional District’s economic development and investment attraction agency known as “Invest Vancouver,” arguing the program was created without proper legal authority.

According to the court filing early this month, Surrey’s municipal government is asking the court to declare that the regional district’s establishment of Invest Vancouver is ultra vires — meaning beyond its legal powers — and therefore “of no effect.”

At the heart of the dispute is whether the regional district followed the requirements set out in provincial legislation, particularly the Local Government Act, when creating the regional economic development agency.

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All of Canada’s largest urban areas have regional economic and investment attraction agencies dedicated to promoting the business activities of their regions, and similar entities also exist for major regions in the United States.

Toronto Global and the Calgary Economic Development, for instance, have annual operating budgets of about $7.5 million and nearly $19 million, respectively. Both entities were also created many years before Metro Vancouver’s region-wide agency.

However, the City of Surrey alleges that while the regional district has historically provided regional services, it failed to pass a required “establishing bylaw” before launching Invest Vancouver. Without that bylaw, the petition argues, the agency cannot legally operate.

The filing claims the district is “a creature of statute” and can only exercise powers explicitly granted by legislation. As a result, any administrative action — such as creating a new regional service — must strictly comply with statutory requirements.

Invest Vancouver is described in the petition as a regional economic development initiative focused on attracting investment, supporting key industries, and promoting the region globally.

The agency evolved from earlier discussions and planning efforts for its creation, dating back to at least 2015, when the regional district’s board of directors began exploring a regional economic prosperity strategy. A formal business plan was followed in 2019, outlining goals such as collaboration, data collection, and strategic investment attraction.

When it launched in 2021, the regional district officially named its economic development service as “Invest Vancouver.” By 2025, as part of a planned years-long ramp-up of its efforts and staffing, Invest Vancouver’s annual budget had grown to approximately $4.76 million, funded largely through requisitions from the region’s municipal governments and supplemented by external partnerships. The City of Surrey alone has contributed more than $2.6 million to Invest Vancouver since 2019, according to the filing.

Surrey contends that the regional district cannot rely on older authorities — such as “development function letters patent” dating back decades — to justify the modern-day operation of Invest Vancouver.

The petition argues that economic development services, particularly those involving coordination, research, and investment attraction, require explicit authorization under current legislation. Without an establishing bylaw, Surrey’s lawyers state, the service was never lawfully created.

The City also challenges the regional district’s interpretation of what qualifies as a “continued service” under provincial law, asserting that Invest Vancouver represents a new initiative rather than a continuation of pre-existing functions.

If successful, the challenge could have significant implications for regional governance and shared services across Metro Vancouver. A ruling in Surrey’s favour could force the regional district to revisit how it establishes and funds programs that span 21 municipal governments.

When asked by Daily Hive Urbanized to provide a comment on the legal dispute, the regional district stated that they are not able to elaborate on the arguments made, but asserted that the creation of Invest Vancouver did not require an establishing bylaw.

“Invest Vancouver was developed through a transparent governance process, with multiple Board endorsements, including approval through the annual budgeting process. Metro Vancouver will respond fully through the appropriate legal process,” stated the regional district on Tuesday.

“Invest Vancouver emerged from Board‑directed work beginning in 2015 to strengthen coordination and competitiveness across the region.”

In early 2025, Invest Vancouver was spared from the regional district’s operating budget cuts, with the regional district telling Daily Hive Urbanized this amounts to a reaffirmation of the regional district’s board of directors’ support in the agency.

This complaint from Surrey’s municipal government comes five years after the initial launch of Invest Vancouver.

In recent years, the regional district’s challenging finances — leading to major pressures to hike taxes and fees paid by ratepayers and developers — have been the subject of much scrutiny from politicians, media, and the general public, with much of it initially fuelled by the significant cost overruns and delays related to the beleaguered North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Surrey mayor Brenda Locke and other members of Surrey City Council, in particular, have also had other open disagreements, if not an adversarial relationship, with the regional district. In early 2025, City Council unanimously approved a motion by city councillor with Locke’s party to have Surrey withdraw from Metro 2050, the regional district’s land use and growth strategy. They argued that this Metro Vancouver plan does not align with Surrey’s priorities.

The City of Surrey also has its own municipally-run economic development and investment attraction agency called “Invest Surrey,” which serves to represent Surrey’s interests only.

Prior to Invest Vancouver’s launch, the City of Vancouver’s Vancouver Economic Commission (VEC) — first created in the 1990s — served as the de facto economic development and investment attraction agency for the entire region. Those who previously worked with VEC told Daily Hive Urbanized that there was no other entity representing the collective interests of the region, and that economic development and investment attraction must be approached from a holistic, regional perspective. They added that the City of Vancouver-funded agency — about $3 million per year — also represented the interests of other municipalities, such as the concentration of film and television production studios in Burnaby.

The creation of Invest Vancouver subsequently led to the City of Vancouver’s decision in 2023 to dissolve the VEC due to some duplication in their work and services, with a new, smaller business unit subsequently created under the City Manager’s office.

VEC led the region’s bid process in 2018/2019 to compete in Amazon’s competition callout to select a city to establish a second global headquarters.

Currently, Invest Vancouver is involved in the potential bid process to have Vancouver become the headquarters office of the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank (DSRB), a newly created multilateral institution designed to finance defence, security, and resilience projects for North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members and allied nations.

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