Every July the Fraser Institute publishes the same comparison: what each of the seventeen largest municipal governments in Metro Vancouver spends per person, adjusted for inflation, using the Province’s own Local Government Statistics. The 2026 edition covers 2009 to 2024. It is not a campaign document, and it treats every municipality the same way.
In 2024 the District of North Vancouver spent $2,533 per person. That is the fourth-highest figure of the seventeen, behind only West Vancouver, Vancouver and New Westminster, and $146 above the regional average of $2,387.
The neighbours
- West Vancouver: $3,879 per person (1st of 17)
- Vancouver: $3,076 (2nd)
- New Westminster: $2,940 (3rd)
- District of North Vancouver: $2,533 (4th)
- Delta: $2,525 (5th)
- City of North Vancouver: $2,431 (7th)
- Richmond: $2,401 (8th)
- Burnaby: $2,250 (10th)
- Coquitlam: $2,081 (13th)
- Surrey: $1,646 (17th)
Burnaby, a city three times our size with its own police detachment, fire department, recreation centres and libraries, spends $283 less per person than the District. Surrey spends $887 less.
The trend
Since 2009 the District’s per-person spending has risen 14.8 per cent after inflation, ninth-fastest of the seventeen. Per-person revenue rose faster: 31.2 per cent after inflation, to $3,079 in 2024. The City of North Vancouver, by comparison, held its spending growth to 5.1 per cent over the same fifteen years.
The Fraser Institute’s earlier breakdown by function found the District allocating the largest share of any Metro municipality to solid waste and utilities, 23.1 per cent of its spending in 2019, and the smallest share to amortization, the cost of renewing what it already owns.
Staff and council
The District’s 2025 Statement of Financial Information lists 545 employees paid more than $75,000, with base salaries totalling $61.2 million. Burnaby’s lists 1,574 such employees at $165.4 million in base salary. Per thousand residents that is 5.6 for the District and 5.3 for Burnaby: close, with the District slightly higher.
Council pay cuts the other way. The District’s mayor received $172,340 in 2025 and each councillor about $72,500; Burnaby’s mayor received $212,607 from the city and its councillors about $97,000. The District is not overpaying its council. The question is what the rest of the money buys.
What I would do
Publish the District’s spending per person beside the same figure for Burnaby, Surrey and the City of North Vancouver in every budget, with the reason for any gap. Review every service line by line before the next tax increase. Residents can judge value only if the comparison is on the table, and today it is not.
Accuracy note: the Fraser Institute figures are inflation-adjusted to 2024 dollars and treat each municipality’s own spending only; TransLink, Metro Vancouver, schools and the Province are outside them. The staff and council figures are the calendar year 2025 as reported in each municipality’s Statement of Financial Information.
Sources: Fraser Institute, July 23, 2026 — Comparing per-Person Municipal Spending and Revenue in Metro Vancouver, 2009–2024 (Table 1 spending, Table 2 revenue, Appendix Table 1 population); Fraser Institute, September 2, 2022 — What are the top spending categories for Metro Vancouver municipalities? (2019 shares by function); District of North Vancouver — 2025 Statement of Financial Information (council remuneration p. 39, employees over $75,000 pp. 40–52); City of Burnaby — 2025 Statement of Financial Information (Mayor and Council p. 40, employee totals p. 68).
Published