In the past couple of months, 14 of the 15 municipalities in British Columbia with at least 90,000 people (as of the 2021 Census) have either passed or discussed its budget for 2024, with the big cities looking at tax increases ranging from 4 to 11 per cent.
And then there’s Surrey.
“We’re not in a great rush to deal with the budget,”
Mayor Brenda Locke told the Vancouver Sun a month ago.
The holiday break came and went with no further update on when exactly the city would put forward its draft financial plan. While the deadline is May 15 of every year, most big municipalities get things completed months before, because of the complexity of city operations and to provide residents with more certainty.
Of course, Surrey continues to be gripped by its dispute with the provincial government, as the city enters year six of its
police transition saga.
Locke hopes to avoid approving a budget until the B.C. Supreme Court rules on the city’s legal challenge against the province’s order to stick with the newly-formed Surrey Police Service.
That could take a while though, and in the interim the city continues to spend more than $8 million extra every month on two different police services — the SPS and RCMP — who do not know what will eventually happen.
If a court decision takes longer than Surrey is hoping, the city will be forced to pass some kind of budget, likely with a very hefty tax increase — but because the SPS hasn’t made its draft budget public yet, that number is also a mystery.
And so, the waiting game and feud continue — much to the chagrin of the one councillor who was the first to call for a referendum on the subject 46 months ago.
“In the history of this city, I cannot think of any other issue that has eaten up more time and more money, and left taxpayers so frustrated about the future,” said Linda Annis.
She spoke out this week against the city’s
marketing campaign against the provincial government’s decision, which included mailers to people’s homes over the holiday season. And while the SPS draft budget is private, the city has seen their proposal — and Annis argues their claims are misleading.
“Both Doug McCallum and Brenda Locke shaped the numbers to suit their version of the transition,” she said.
Whether one agrees with Annis, Locke or McCallum, one thing seems certain: Surrey will continue to be an outlier in the region, both in terms of its relationship with the province, and how it goes about its budget for this year.
