capital budget <\/a>over five years includes, among \u201ckey\u201d investments, a $200 million 10,000-seat arena downtown \u2013 potentially accompanied by a hotel and casino \u2013 completing the $152.4 million Centre Block development to house SFU\u2019s school of medicine and also covers $358 million in road and other transportation improvements.<\/p>\nCity hall received five pieces of correspondence prior to the public hearing; three in support of the budget and two expressing concerns.<\/p>\n
The finance committee heard from two speakers. Mohkam Singh Malik spoke first.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis budget will allow us to stop being that bedroom community and start being more of a destination,\u201d Malik said, speaking in favour. \u201cIt\u2019s an investment in our local economy and importantly it\u2019s an investment in our livability. We\u2019re creating a space where the future doesn\u2019t just live, but where our future thrives, celebrates, and stays here in the city. Let\u2019s keep that dream alive by building a city people actually want to be in because together we can be more than a suburb.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deb Jack, of Surrey Environmental Partners, argued for a park ranger program, as well as the expansion of environment-related programs and a levy to help pay for them.<\/p>\n
Councillor Doug Elford thanked the speakers but added \u201cto me it\u2019s a little disappointing at the finance committee we don\u2019t get better attendance. I mean, to me this is a very critical decision point we have to make as a council, the most important decision we make,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Following debate the finance committee passed the budget with Surrey First councillors Linda Annis and Mike Bose voting against it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis budget is not a referendum on the performance of council,\u201d Elford said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat comes in October,\u201d he said, alluding to the civic election. \u201cMy role is to consider a budget which I think is best for the people I represent. This is a modest tax increase which addresses the infrastructure of our growing city.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bose said he wouldn\u2019t support the budget \u201cbecause we did not fund the police to the level that they requested.\u201d<\/p>\n
Annis said she won\u2019t support the City of Surrey funding an ice arena \u201cwhere we don\u2019t have a tenant, and to me the $200 million doesn\u2019t seem like it\u2019s going to fully fund it. We don\u2019t know what the operating costs are going to be and I don\u2019t want the taxpayers to be on the hook for that. What I would support, in terms of an entertainment centre, is doing some sort of a P-3 project (public\/private) where the City gives the land and we get someone to build it and operate it.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also agreed with Bose that the Surrey Police Service is \u201cbeing underfunded.\u201d<\/p>\n
Councillor Pardeep Kooner asked Grewal if the budget was not approved by the police board.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolutely, it was approved by the Surrey Police Board,\u201d Grewal replied.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo are we in a position to argue with the police board after they\u2019ve approved the budget?\u201d Kooner asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see an argument, to be frank,\u201d Grewal replied. \u201cIt was a collaborative effort with the Surrey Police Board, senior executives of the SPS as well as the City side, so they\u2019ve endorsed that budget.\u201d<\/p>\n
Council on March 9 granted third-reading approval to a lengthy list of bylaws related to the budget.<\/p>\n
Council in 2025 ratified a 2.8 per cent general property tax increase that worked out to about $77 for the average assessed single-family home.<\/p>\n
In 2024, council approved a budget that included a six per cent property tax hike, a one per cent increase in the roads and tax levy, and a secondary suite fee increase on top of increased utility rate fees.<\/p>\n
On Jan. 26, council voted to increase water utility rates by 5.3 per cent in 2026 over 2025, hike sewer utility rates by 1.37 per cent, raise by 1.5 per cent the 2026 drainage\/dyking\/flood protection utility parcel tax for all property classes, and increase solid waste utility rates by 1.2 per cent and district energy utility rates by 6.4 per cent.<\/p>\n
Annis issued a press release stating that \u201cLocke\u2019s tax increases have cost the average Surrey family another $1500 over her term, with more costs on the way. Under Locke, property taxes grew by 26 per cent, water rates grew by 24 per cent, and sewer rates increased by more than 70 per cent.\u201d<\/p>\n
She claimed Locke is \u201ctreating Surrey taxpayers like ATMs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Annis declared that if she is elected mayor in October there will be \u201can immediate core review and no city tax increases in 2027.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Surrey residents are getting a property tax hike of 2.6 per cent this year. It was approved by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":{"0":"post-526662","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-surrey","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-surrey"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}