2016-2020_Financial_Plan_Web

Message from the General Manager, Finance andTechnology

11.0 MEETING THE CHALLENGES OF TOMORROW

The City of Surrey is proud to be the largest City in British Columbia by land mass, and the second-largest City by population with just over 500,000 residents. The 2016 - 2020 Financial Plan recognizes the challenges of such a rapidly growing municipality and how that can affect our goals of sustainability, community safety, economic development, exemplary service provision, and sound municipal infrastructure.

Surrey incorporates “Triple Bottom Line Accounting” meaning environmental, socio- cultural and economic factors are considered in decision-making processes.

After relocating City Hall to the downtown core, the City continues to see significant investment in our downtown that is creating a thriving, urban centre, attracting progressive business and educational organizations. The City has also begun construction of an Organics Biofuel facility that will process organic waste into natural gas, fueling waste collection trucks within the City. This Biofuel facility, expecting to become operational in 2017, will be Canada’s largest biofuel facility and will be operated by Iris Solutions.

In 2015 Surrey City Energy saw its first external customers connect to our district energy system in City Centre, with additional customers coming online in 2016.

The new energy system reduces emissions, increases energy security, stimulates local economic development, provides competitive energy pricing and increases public awareness around the sustainable use of energy. Surrey’s New City Hall also makes use of the district energy system, utilizing an underground geo-exchange field, which uses heat pumps to extract the energy stored in the ground. Further expansion of the district energy system is expected to take place in both the City Centre Area and near the King George SkyTrain Station as new high-rise developments are completed. The City’s Corporate Emissions Action Plan, adopted by Council on October 2010, outlines how we intend to reduce our energy use and greenhouse gas emissions from corporate sources by 33% below baseline levels by 2020 and by 80% by 2050. A compliment to the Corporate Emissions Action Plan is the Community Climate Action Strategy that includes a Climate Adaptation Strategy, identifying how the City may be vulnerable to climate change and proposes actions to mitigate the risk, and a Community Energy and Emissions Plan that provides guidance to reduce community energy spending and greenhouse gas emissions.

2016-2020 FINANCIAL PLAN

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