Philippine Asian News Today Vol 20 No 16 | Page 22
ARTS AND CULTURE
22
PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY August 16 - 31, 2018
Happy Birthday Jun!
Birthday Celebration of Jun and Appreciation Party for the very
successful Morisette Live in Vancouver concert last Saturday August 18 at Cortez residence in Port Moody. Family and friends with Jun’s parents and special
guests Fe De Los Reyes and Odette Quesada were present. (Photos by Christian Cunanan)
Government spending at Vancouver city hall
higherthan Surrey
VANCOUVER, British Columbia
- The City of Vancouver spends
significantly more per resident—and
collects much higher revenues per
resident, too—than Surrey, the next
largest municipality by population in
the region, finds a new study released
today by the Fraser Institute, an
independent, non-partisan Canadian
public policy think-tank.
“With municipal elections slated
for October, our study helps residents
in the greater Vancouver area
better understand the state of their
municipality’s finances and how they
compare to other cities,” said Josef
Filipowicz, senior policy analyst with
the Fraser Institute and co-author of
Comparing Municipal Government
Finances in Metro Vancouver, 2018.
The study compares 17 of
the Metro Vancouver Regional
District’s 21 municipalities on several
measures—including
government
spending, revenue and debt—from
2007 to 2016, the most recent year of
available data.
It finds West Vancouver had the
highest level of government spending
in 2016 at $2,583 per person, followed
by New Westminster ($2,225) and
Vancouver ($1,944). Surrey, by
contrast, was the lowest spender at
$1,057 per person, well below the
regional average of $1,549.
In other words, Vancouver, the
most populated municipality in the
region, spent 84 per cent more per
person than Surrey, the region’s
second most populated city.
Crucially,
Vancouver
also
collected the third highest amount
of revenue—$2,693 per person—
compared to Surrey, which collected
the second lowest ($1,673). Put
another way, Vancouver collected 61
per cent more revenue per person
than Surrey. And once again, West
Vancouver topped the list, collecting
$3,253 in revenue per person.
Most of this revenue comes
from property taxes on homes and
businesses, user fees for services such
as water and civic facilities, parking
fees and levy fees on homebuilders
and property developers.
“Ultimately, it’s up to the residents
across the region to decide if they’re
getting good value for their municipal
WWW.PHILIPPINEASIANNEWSTODAY.COM
tax dollars, but they need comparable
information with other municipalities
to help make that call,” said study co-
author Charles Lammam, director of
fiscal studies with the Fraser Institute.
(Fraser Institute News Release)