Surrey council is lodging a formal complaint against Metro Vancouver with the Inspector of Municipalities of the Province of British Columbia and is calling for a public inquiry, with the lieutenant governor’s blessing, into how Metro is doing business, with all costs to be shouldered by Metro.
Council approved a motion by Mayor Brenda Locke in which she declared Metro “has conducted its business in a manner that is unfairly oppressive to, prejudicial to, and disregards the interests of the City and other member municipalities.”
City manager Rob Constanzo said the result of this is the provincial government being mandated to “take over” the City of Surrey’s complaint “at the cost of Metro Vancouver.”
Councillor Doug Elford said while he doesn’t “have much faith in the Province resolving this,” he’d support the motion to “see where it goes.” Councillor Linda Annis said “it’s long overdue, and I think to get the Province to step up and take care of this is absolutely critical.”
Locke charged that Metro’s officers and employees have withheld critical financial, engineering, environmental and other records and information from directors appointed to the Metro by the City “despite the directors, fiduciary and statutory duties to the Metro board and the city’s ratepayers and residents.”
Metro Vancouver is a federation of 21 municipalities including Surrey, as well as an electoral area and one treaty First Nation.
Locke charged Metro “entities” with wasting corporate assets, violating terms and conditions of provincial and federal enactments and legal agreements.
Councillor Pardeep Kooner said she “has concerns that Metro Vancouver has possibly breached the Local Government Act multiple times.”
She added the amount of “scope creep” over the years “has now made it apparent that Metro Vancouver is a direct hindrance to Surrey’s elected officials’ ability to move the city of Surrey forward.”
Kooner said the “elephant in the room” is that Metro “is refusing to acknowledge that it needs the city of Surrey. There is no other municipality in this region that has anywhere near the same industrial and commercial land mass as exists in Surrey to drive the economic engine of the region and the province.”
“Additionally, the board is provided with multiple reports that are completely biased and in some cases directly ignore board direction or worse yet, after telling directors that they will make changes Metro Vancouver staff drag their feet and cause unnecessary delays seemingly on purpose,” Kooner said. “All of these actions have financial implications to the city of Surrey residents and businesses.”
Kooner added that “just so the public knows,” when the Metro Vancouver board is presented with financial decisions “the information provided is always based on inflated budgeted numbers without any historical actual financials. These actuals sometimes show significant difference to the magnitude of almost half a billion dollars. This is completely outrageous.”
Earlier in the evening, as council was granting final approval on the 2026 budget, Locke made some pointed remarks about having to approve the Metro Regional District tax component, noting that while council is legally required to do it “this should not be mistaken for support for Metro Vancouver.”
She said council is approving this portion of the budget because municipalities “are obligated to collect and remit the regional district requisition once it has been issued. We are doing so while clearly registering our opposition to these increases.”
“Our obligation tonight is a legal one. Our opposition though, is real.”
Locke said Surrey taxpayers “work hard for their money and they deserve confidence that every tax dollar collected from them is justified, disciplined and fair and where taxes are being imposed beyond what residents should reasonably be expected to bear, local governments have the responsibility to speak up and that is exactly what we will be doing tonight.
“Surrey council,” she added, “does not support downloading unreasonable regional costs onto property taxpayers in Surrey. We will continue to press for greater accountability, stronger cost controls and a fairer approach so that Surrey residents and taxpayers across this region and not unfairly burdened.”
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