City of Surrey's spending per person lowest among 17 Metro Vancouver municipalities | Daily Hive

City of Surrey's spending per resident lowest among Metro Vancouver's 17 largest municipal governments

Surrey City Hall. (City of Surrey)

Municipal governments across Metro Vancouver are spending and collecting substantially more money per resident than they did 15 years ago, even after accounting for population growth and inflation.

The new analysis by Fraser Institute examined the finances of Metro Vancouver’s 17 largest municipal governments between 2009 and 2024. Across these municipal governments, inflation-adjusted spending averaged $2,387 per resident in 2024 — up from $2,085 in 2009. All figures are expressed in 2024 dollars.

That represents an increase of $303 per person or 14.5 per cent beyond inflation. As the figures are also calculated on a per-person basis, the increase was greater than population growth and inflation combined.

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Municipal government revenues grew nearly twice as quickly. The average reached $3,101 per resident in 2024 — up by $670 or 27.5 per cent from $2,431 in 2009.

The differences between municipalities were considerable.

The District of West Vancouver recorded the highest spending in 2024 at $3,879 per resident. That was $802 more than the City of Vancouver, which ranked second at $3,076, and more than twice the City of Surrey’s spending of $1,646 per person — the lowest among the 17 jurisdictions.

The City of New Westminster placed third at $2,940 per resident, followed by the District of North Vancouver at $2,533 and the City of Delta at $2,525.

At the lower end, the City of Langley spent $1,842 per resident, the City of Maple Ridge spent $1,846, and the City of Port Coquitlam spent $1,959.

However, the municipal governments with the highest overall spending were not necessarily the ones where spending grew the fastest.

The City of Pitt Meadows recorded the largest increase between 2009 and 2024, with inflation-adjusted spending per resident rising by 30.6 per cent from $1,789 to $2,337. The City of Port Moody followed with a 24.3 per cent increase, while spending in the District of West Vancouver rose by 19.9 per cent.

The City of Vancouver’s spending climbed from $2,582 to $3,076 per resident, representing a 19.1 per cent increase and the fourth-largest growth rate in the region.

The smallest increase was recorded in the City of Langley, where spending rose by 3.8 per cent. The City of North Vancouver experienced a 5.1 per cent increase, while the City of Maple Ridge recorded growth of 7.8 per cent.

Fraser Institute

Municipal revenue also varied substantially across the region. The report’s revenue measure includes not only property taxes, but also user fees, transfers from other levels of government, investment income, development charges, and asset-sale gains.

The City of West Vancouver collected the most in 2024 at $4,387 per resident, followed closely by the City of Vancouver at $4,226. The City of New Westminster ranked third at $3,484, followed by the City of Coquitlam at $3,436 and the City of Richmond at $3,364.

The City of Langley had the lowest revenue at $2,463 per resident. The City of Port Coquitlam collected $2,479, while the City of Surrey collected $2,516.

The City of Port Moody experienced the region’s largest revenue increase over the 15-year period. Its revenue rose from $2,015 per resident in 2009 to $2,989 in 2024, an inflation-adjusted increase of 48.3 per cent.

The City of Coquitlam recorded the second-largest increase at 45.4 per cent, followed by the City of Vancouver at 43 per cent. The City of Surrey’s revenue grew by 37.9 per cent, despite remaining among the lowest on a per-person basis in 2024.

The City of North Vancouver experienced the smallest revenue increase at 10.5 per cent. The City of Langley followed at 13.4 per cent, while the City of Port Coquitlam recorded an increase of 14.1 per cent.

Fraser Institute

Fraser Institute

The report separately examined the Metro Vancouver Regional District, which is the regional government that provides the region’s municipal governments with bulk regional services of drinking water, sewage treatment, and solid waste management, as well as the operation of regional parks and regional land use planning.

Regional district spending increased from $267 per resident in 2009 to $295 in 2024, an inflation-adjusted increase of 10.6 per cent. Revenue grew much more quickly, rising by 39.4 per cent from $337 to $469 per resident.

It should be emphasized that the numbers for the municipal government and regional district should be viewed separately. Municipal government revenue figures do not include the property tax collected on behalf of the regional district, the provincial government, and TransLink.

TransLink’s finances, including the property taxes collected by municipal governments and transferred to the public transit authority, were excluded. The researchers also removed the District of West Vancouver’s Blue Bus costs and the corresponding TransLink reimbursements so the municipal government would be more comparable with all others; the District of West Vancouver is the only municipal government in Metro Vancouver to operate and fund its own public transit services.

Municipal comparisons are further complicated by differences in the services provided by each local government. Municipalities can choose different service levels and operate different facilities, meaning higher spending alone does not always necessarily establish that one government is less efficient than another.

Moreover, some municipalities — particularly larger cities such as Vancouver and Surrey — bear costs associated with issues that extend beyond their boundaries and would typically fall under regional, provincial, or federal jurisdiction. For instance, the City of Vancouver asserts it spends more than $100 million annually on additional policing, fire and rescue services, sanitation, park maintenance, bylaw enforcement, and other measures to address public disorder and the overlapping homelessness, addiction, and mental health crises, which are especially concentrated in the Downtown Eastside.

Similarly, although residents from across Metro Vancouver attended the official FIFA World Cup festivities hosted by the City of Vancouver, taxpayers in other municipalities did not directly contribute through their municipal governments toward the City of Vancouver’s share of the hosting costs. The temporary added FIFA World Cup hotel sales tax between 2023 and 2030 — which is designed to cover most of the City of Vancouver’s costs from hosting the tournament — only applies to overnight room bookings at hotel properties within the borders of the City of Vancouver, not the entire Metro Vancouver region.

West Vancouver Blue Bus outside Park Royal mall. (TransLink)

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