Invest Vancouver spared from Metro Vancouver Regional District cuts | Daily Hive

Boardroom at Metro Vancouver Regional District's headquarters office. (Metro Vancouver Regional District)

Comprised of mayors and city councillors from across the region, the board directors of Metro Vancouver Regional District convened today to deliberate potential initial cuts to the regional government’s services in an effort to reduce its costs.

Up to about $22 million of annual operating cost cuts across a range of programs and services were deliberated in this first phase of the review, which was triggered by the board in response to growing public and media criticism over the regional district’s growing expenses and mandate.

This is against a backdrop of an annual operating budget of over $1.46 billion for the current fiscal year.

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Over the last few years, the regional district first drew significant attention due to the soaring costs of its major utility projects, particularly the troubled North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant and the Iona Island Wastewater Treatment Plant.

In recent weeks, new attention has turned to how much elected officials across the region are paid for attending the regional district’s board and committee meetings.

Ultimately, as part of its 2026 budgeting process, the board decided during the meeting to only eliminate the grant that supports the Fraser Basin Council, starting in 2026. The non-profit organization that focuses on sustainability initiatives will no longer receive $300,000 from the regional district, which has supported the organization annually since 1997.

The board also considered discontinuing the E9-1-1 Call Transfer Service, Regional Employer Services, Regional Climate Policy Coordination, Invest Vancouver, and six other external contributions, including grants and its partnership with the PNE, which provides the regional district with a presence at certain fairground events for public engagement purposes. However, it ultimately chose to retain all of these initiatives and explore cost reductions instead.

Today’s deliberations also contemplated cutting the initiative of the Sustainability Innovation Fund, which has an Early Earthquake Warning System and Strategic Response program that installed earthquake detection sensors at the regional district’s water supply infrastructure. The system triggers automated actions to prevent damage to key facilities of the water supply system. This was deliberated on the same day Metro Vancouver experienced a magnitude 5.1 earthquake.

Also discussed was Invest Vancouver, which is the regional district’s 2019-launched, in-house economic and investment attraction agency — an entity that woos businesses, jobs, and economic activity to the region.

According to the regional district, since 2022, Invest Vancouver has been responsible for bringing 18 companies to the region — worth a combined total of $1.3 billion in investment, and generating nearly 1,000 direct jobs. In 2025, Invest Vancouver’s operating budget is $4.75 million.

All of Canada’s largest urban areas have regional economic and investment attraction agencies dedicated to promoting their regions.

In contrast, Invest Vancouver’s counterparts — Toronto Global and the Calgary Economic Development — have annual operating budgets of $7.5 million and nearly $19 million, respectively. Both are supported by their local governments, with Calgary’s agency known to be actively working to attract Metro Vancouver businesses to relocate.

As well, the City of Vancouver’s 2023 decision to dissolve its long-running, municipally-supported Vancouver Economic Commission (VEC) was due in part to the regional district’s creation of Invest Vancouver. VEC was previously the region’s de facto economic and investment attraction agency.

Discussions and decisions on the future of the Housing Development Fund and Zero Waste Collaboration Initiatives were deferred to a board meeting at the end of this month.

“The regional district model allows member jurisdictions to come together to provide services for the region while benefitting from economies of scale and regional expertise,” said Mike Hurley, chair of the regional district’s board of directors, and the Mayor of Burnaby.

“Our programs have always been about providing the very best quality of life to our region’s residents. Today’s discussion and decisions by the Board were an important part of our collaboration as a region, and validated where we collectively feel we should be focused in the years ahead.”

According to the regional district, in 2025, residents will pay an average of $875 annually per household for the services provided by the regional government, including average annual costs of $510 for sewerage/liquid waste, $200 for drinking water supply connections, $71 for solid waste/landfill, $63 for regional parks, $7 for air quality initiatives, $4 for regional planning, and $20 for various other regional district services.

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