As with death and taxes, Surrey residents can now include annual utility rate hikes among life's unfortunate certainties.
A City of Surrey corporate report that came before council on Monday night recommended that the finance committee seek its approval of rate "adjustments" related to water, sewer, drainage, solid waste, parking and district energy self-funded (ie. user pay) utilities as the City prepares its 2025 Five-Year (2025-2029) Financial Plan for each of these. Council, sitting as the finance committee during a meeting that same afternoon, approved the recommendations which were then formally adopted Monday night with council granting third-reading approval to 13 related bylaws.
The sewer rate hikes will undoubtedly freak people out, driven by the "significant cost escalation" related to the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant (NSWWTP) that's estimated to cost $2.86 billion more than it was supposed to be. This, according to the corporate report from Surrey city manager Rob Constanzo and finance manager Kam Grewal, is "resulting in increased sewer levy amounts for a period of 30 years for North Shore residents and 15 years for residents of all other municipalities in the region, including Surrey."
Mayor Brenda Locke said it's "concerning, there's no doubt about it, to see the costs that Metro Vancouver and the imposition it is having on our residents."
The report indicates that In 2025, the Metro Vancouver (MV) sewer levy for Surrey increased by 37.6 per cent compared to 2024 with 76 per cent of this levy hike being imposed to fund the NSWWTP and "the remaining 24 per cent of this levy increase is the standard MV sewer levy increase for Surrey."
Also, Metro Vancouver sewer rates are projected to rise by an average 7.1 per cent per year for each of the remaining four years of the Five-Year Plan. The annual impact on sewer customers as proposed is $174.14 for metered single family accounts, $967.41 on metered commercial and $386.96 on non-meter residential.
Members of the public had an opportunity to voice any concerns at the finance committee meeting, following Grewal's presentation.
But nobody showed up.
"Madam Clerk there is nobody in the audience today but please provide details to members of the public regarding participation," Locke observed. "I don't see anybody even on our registration list."
Coun. Linda Annis said she's "deeply concerned" about the Metro Vancouver increases. The increase for the average single family home, she noted, "is going to be over $200 for Metro fees. I feel that that's not acceptable and I think this just further points out the need for a review of the whole Metro Vancouver system because we can't be incurring these kinds of costs for our residents in Surrey."
Grewal replied that "without question" the Metro Vancouver rate increases "are absolutely dwarfing the increases on the City side.
"The impact of Metro Vancouver on the sewer side for the residents of the city of Surrey are significant and it's certainly something we have communicated to Metro Van on many different fronts," Grewal said. "It is very, very significant. That is the reality that we're facing and it is out of the control of the City of Surrey."
Coun. Doug Elford supported the recommendations. "The utilities report budget encompasses what I consider core service that affect every citizen in Surrey," he said. "I've always prioritized core services in my decisions as a city councillor. It's not sexy, or headline grabbing, but is essential and is the main reason council's came into existence. As Surrey grows and we hear calls for more infrastructure, there's nothing more important in my mind than Surreyites with access to excellent drinking water, garbage disposal, and that your toilets flush."
Elford said Surrey residents currently flush their toilets 1.2 billion times per year. "That's a lot of crap. I know it's not popular to approve tax hikes but to me this is minimal compared to what the expectations of the people of Surrey are."
Surrey's water metering program, brought on stream 25 years ago, now services more than 74,000 accounts. The corporate report contained a recommendation that the water utility metered rate be hiked by 5.5 per cent over last year – with 95 per cent of that attributable to Metro Vancouver and five per cent due to a City of Surrey increase.
Moreover, Metro Vancouver bulk water rates are expected to increase by an average of 3.3 per cent each year for the remaining four years of the Five-Year Plan.
Meanwhile, the non-metered or flat-water rate that's charged to customers without water meters is also increasing based on the average consumption of water related to this type of accounts.
Broken down, the annual impact will be $25.30 on metered single-family residences, $140.60 on metered commercial and $56.24 on non-metered residential.
Coun. Pardeep Kooner asked if information can be sent out to non-metered residents to let them know what their costs could be based off of average consumption.
Grewal said the City of Surrey has "certainly over the last many, many years" been encouraging residents to join the metered user-pay approach "and we can look at even look at including information when we do our tax billing this year as well. That's something we've been advocating for many, many years."
Kooner replied she thinks that's "really important" considering the sewer rate hikes are on their way with more to come, that people know how much more they are paying than their metered neighbour.
Drainage rate changes have residential and agricultural increasing to $247 in 2025 from $246 in 2024, and commercial and industrial increasing to $604 in 2025 from $601 in 2024.
As for solid waste, the City of Surrey provides weekly curbside organic waste collection with garbage and recycling in turn every second week to roughly 108,200 single family households, 42,000 secondary suites and also provides 35,200 apartment building customers with "centralized recycling service" and 50 per cent of these also receiving weekly organic waste collection.
Solid waste fees for single family and multi-family garbage, organics and recycling are $340 in 2025 compared to $337 in 2024 and for secondary suites, $170 in 2025 from $168 in 2024. Collection services for apartments and townhouses will see no rate increase.
In January 2024, city council approved a series of rate hikes for utilities.
For 2024 the sewer utility rates for metered and non-metered accounts were increased by 14.5 per cent over the 2023 rate.
Surrey residents paid more for garbage, recycling and organic waste pick-up. For single-family and multi-family residential, annual rates increased to $337 from $333.59 and secondary suites to $168 from $166.26. For apartment and townhouse recycling and organics pickup, the increase was to $46 from $45.64 and for recycling alone, to $35 from $34.77.
In February 2023, council approved a staff recommendation to hike water, sewer, drainage and solid waste utility rates that year as well.
