FAQs

The budget is the City’s plan for where it will get money (revenues) and how it will spend it (expenditures) in alignment with our long-term vision. In Surrey, the budget is referred to as the Five-Year Financial Plan.

Every year, the City prepares a Five-Year Financial Plan in accordance with provincial legislation.  The financial plan outlines the financing of initiatives associated with the City's strategic plans (e.g., Economic Strategy 2024, Housing Action Plan, Parks, Rec. & Culture Strategic Plan, etc.) as well as Council's key priorities.

Council works to ensure that the financial plan is responsive to the needs of residents, provides adequate funding to maintain City services, and addresses the demands of growth throughout Surrey.

There are three main components of the City's financial plan: General Operating, Utilities Operating, and Capital Program. All three components are interrelated.

• General Operating funds the delivery of everyday programs and services like police, bylaw and fire services, attractions, recreation activities, parks maintenance, and social programs.

• Utilities Operating funds the operating costs of utilities, including roads, water, sewer, drainage, solid waste, parking, and Surrey City Energy.

• The Capital Program funds all the things the City builds—from new structures to maintaining what we’ve already got—including roads, utilities infrastructure, recreation centres, city vehicles, fire halls, pools, arenas and libraries.

Municipalities are required to adopt a financial plan each year. The planning period for the financial plan is five years, made up of the upcoming year as well as the following four years.

Each year, City staff develop an annual budget based on direction from Council and with input from the public. The budget details where, when, and how funds should be spent to deliver quality services to meet the needs of the community, to support businesses, and to deliver on strategic initiatives. 

Through this process, City departments examine priorities, assess objectives, and make resource allocation decisions to support organizational goals. Council provides input to guide the process and ensures that the budget addresses their key strategic priorities and initiatives.  

Pursuant to provincial legislation, municipalities’ budgets must be balanced, meaning that total expenditures cannot exceed total proposed funding sources. In order to balance the budget while maintaining current service levels and addressing new funding priorities, the City needs to consider a combination of funding mechanisms (see question below: How does the City pay for its programs and services). 

It’s important to the City that residents have the opportunity to provide input on their priorities as the budget is developed. The City is asking for feedback through an online survey and a series of in-person events. Data gathered from the online survey and in-person events will help Council adopt a financial plan that reflects the community’s needs and priorities.

Timeline: 

• October/November 2025 | Public engagement on budget priorities   
• December 2025 | Budget engagement results brought to Council 
• January/February 2026 (target timeframe) | Draft Budget presented at public hearing   
• January/February 2026 (target timeframe) | Council adoption of budget 

In preparing for the 2026 budget, Council must carefully consider emerging issues and community priorities, as well as the need to fund City services, amenities, and infrastructure. External factors must also be considered, such as economic inflation, materials and construction costs, climate change and extreme weather events. Protective services resourcing (e.g., police, fire and bylaw enforcement services) is another vital component of the budget.

In addition to Council’s key priorities, the following plans also guide decision-making around the budget: 

• The Sustainability Charter
• The Official Community Plan
• The Transportation Strategic Plan
• The Parks, Recreation and Culture Strategic Plan
• The Surrey Public Library Strategic Plan

A link to the above plans can be found on the project page.

There are a number of revenue sources that cities use to fund services, amenities, and infrastructure: 

Property tax: Property tax is the main source of revenue for most cities. Property tax includes property value taxes, parcel taxes, and local area service taxes.  

• Property value tax is levied on the value of land and improvements. Property owners pay based on the property’s assessed value as well as the amount determined by the City to provide services, such as maintaining the City’s road network. 
• Parcel taxes are levied on the unit, frontage or area of a property. Parcel taxes are distinct and separate from the property value taxes, which are levied on the assessed value of a property. Parcel taxes in Surrey support services such as recreation and culture, and infrastructure such as drainage systems. 
• Local area service taxes provide funding for services to only a portion of the municipality (i.e., a local service area).

User fees: A charge that an individual pays to use City services to partially recover the costs of those services. Examples include recreation and culture facility admissions, parking fees, development fees, and dog licences. User fees are also a funding mechanism for the water, sewer, and energy utilities that are billed separately, along with the solid waste (garbage and recycling) utility that appears on your tax bill.

Borrowing:  The City has access to long-term external borrowing through the Municipal Finance Authority of British Columbia (MFA) to provide additional funding options for major capital projects. The City carefully monitors its borrowing capacity and debt levels when considering this option. The City strives to borrow only when necessary.

As one of British Columbia’s fastest growing municipalities, Surrey is regularly undergoing major transformation to meet the needs of its growing population. The City funds a range of services, amenities, and infrastructure. Property tax dollars, along with multiple other revenue sources, help fund the priorities set out in the five-year financial plan, including recreation programming, fire and police services, and future infrastructure.

All municipalities are required to collect taxes on behalf of other authorities to pay for regional and provincial services. For example, these include drinking water, solid waste disposal, schools, ambulances, and more. In 2025, these amounts accounted for nearly 44% of the City’s total budgeted tax collections.

Based on 2025 budget
*Province - schools, TransLink, BC Assessment, Metro Vancouver, Municipal Finance Authority

Nearly 63% of property taxes collected go to the Province of BC, TransLink, Metro Vancouver and other authorities, as well as police services. The City of Surrey does not control the tax increases imposed by provincial authorities or how they spend their share. The remaining 37% stays with the City of Surrey and helps fund services like fire services, roads and traffic safety, parks, recreation, culture, and more.

Surrey’s budget process is underway. Decisions have not yet been made around tax increases that may be needed to balance the budget. Any tax increases within the draft budget will be impacted by resource allocation decisions, desired service levels, emerging priorities, external factors such as inflation, and findings from community engagement.

We are currently engaging the community to gather feedback on priorities and funding options prior to drafting a budget. After community engagement, a draft budget will be prepared for review by the Finance Committee. At that time, any considerations around changes to property taxes will be shared with the public for input. A public hearing on the draft budget is expected to take place in January/February 2026 (target timeframe).

The BC Police Amendment Act, 2023 requires that the City of Surrey must provide its municipal policing by means of the Surrey Police (SPS). Accordingly, the SPS became the police of jurisdiction (POJ) in Surrey on November 29, 2024. The RCMP Surrey Provincial Operations Support Unit will provide support to the SPS until the transition is completed. The timeline for completion of the transition will depend on the pace of SPS hiring, infrastructure development, and file transfer. The City is committed to ensuring continuity of service for community programs that are delivered by partner agencies, the City of Surrey, the SPS and the RCMP.  

Surrey City Council worked hard to ensure that the provincial government would support the police transition, securing funding of up to $250 million. The Province and the City reached an agreement in July 2024 whereby the Province will provide $30 million per year ($150 million in total) to assist with transition costs until 2029. The agreement also provides a financial guarantee of as much as $20 million per year (up to $100 million in total) if SPS salary costs are higher than what the City would have paid for RCMP salary costs from 2029 to 2034. These provincial contributions are reflected in the City’s Police Services operating budget.

The provincial Police Act prescribes that a municipal police board must prepare and submit a budget to City council each year. The Surrey Police Board’s annual budget submission to the City, inclusive of costs for SPS operations, Lower Mainland Integrated Police Services, and the RCMP Surrey Provincial Operations Support Unit, forms the basis of the City’s Police Services operating budget.

The City recently asked the community to share their ideas on which City services are most important to them and where they would like to see their tax dollars go. 

Feedback collected from survey and in-person events will be analyzed and presented to help inform Council as they review and adopt the 2026 budget. 

The budget process and how the City ultimately balances the budget affects all community members who enjoy Surrey's vast number of services, amenities and infrastructure—whether you rent or own your home. If you call Surrey home or if you own a business in Surrey, we welcome your feedback.