Surrey budget engagement

Happy Cities led community engagement for the City of Surrey’s 2024 and 2025 budgets, ensuring that city spending reflects the priorities of diverse residents.

Surrey City Centre, with Holland Park on the left. (City of Surrey)

Everyone deserves a say in city spending.

Surrey is a diverse community, comprising six town centres and people of many ages, backgrounds, languages, cultures, and interests.

Annual budgets ensure that cities can meet the needs of their evolving, diverse communities. Each year, cities set budgets to outline how they will fund programs, services, public spaces, and infrastructure. Although cities are not required to ask the public about their priorities for the budget, Surrey wants to involve the community in this process, recognizing that cities are stronger when they are shaped by everyone.

To the public, budgets can be daunting and complex. And with rising inflation and costs of living, clear communication around how cities spend their funds is essential.

Happy Cities worked with the City of Surrey to reach as many residents and local businesses as possible and hear their priorities for the city budget for two consecutive years, 2024 and 2025. Through this engagement, we aimed to demystify the budget process, ensuring that residents understand where their tax dollars go to—and how City spending on public programs, services, and infrastructure can improve quality of life for everyone. For both years, we synthesized what we heard into key community priorities for each budget, to help City Council align spending with the needs of Surrey residents.

What goes in a city budget?

Surrey’s annual budget funds things like libraries, museums, parks, recreation facilities, garbage collection, fire halls, street upgrades, utilities infrastructure, and more.

Wolf Spirit mural at Semiahmoo Library, by artist Leslie Wells. (City of Surrey)

Surrey Sport and Leisure Centre. (City of Surrey)

Holland Park. (City of Surrey)