City of Surrey's 2021 - 2025 Financial Plan

CONTRIBUTION & EXPENDITURE OVERVIEW

Other Statutory Reserve Funds The Community Charter allows for the establishment of less restrictive statutory reserve funds. One example is the Municipal Land Reserve. Legislation requires that proceeds from the sale of parkland be deposited into a statutory reserve fund and can only be used to purchase parkland. All other proceeds from land sales are deposited into the Municipal Land Reserve as per Bylaw 6474. Once the funds have been deposited, they may be used without restriction as long as the planned expenditures are authorized by Council and meet with the intended purpose set out in the bylaw. The City is also permitted to appropriate monies from general operating funds and transfer amounts to a capital works reserve fund. OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS Other contributions are usually from sources external to the City which include the following: External Resources External or sundry funding sources are contributions to capital projects from individuals or external organizations, including senior governments. These contributions vary from year to year in accordance with changes in government grant programs and opportunities for private sector partnerships. Some projects are dependent on these contributions in order to proceed. Borrowing Long-term borrowing limits for municipalities within the Province of BC are determined by the criteria established under Section 174 of the Community Charter. These borrowing limits are based on a municipality’s ability to service their debt. Debt servicing limits are based on 25% of the following: • The annual revenue, excluding reserve/capital and development revenues, for the previous year; less • The annual debt servicing costs including contingent liabilities. For 2020, the City of Surrey’s calculated gross borrowing capacity was approximately $2.10 billion based on the regulatory calculation defined by the Provincial government. Actual outstanding consolidated external borrowing at December 31, 2020 was $214,230,000. Of this external borrowing, $167,485,000 relates to City external borrowing through the Municipal Finance Authority of British Columbia (MFABC). The City’s cash re-payments of MFABC principal are held in a sinking fund administered by MFABC. The sinking fund earns interest, known as actuarial earnings, through an investment program managed by MFABC. In addition to the cash re- payments, the actuarial earnings on the sinking fund are also applied as a reduction to the outstanding loan balance.

City of Surrey | 2021—2025 Financial Plan | Capital Program

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