City of Surrey's 2021 - 2025 Financial Plan

ECONOMIC OVERVIEW

vaccinations reach a critical mass in the province as their recovery will be dependent on the easing of restrictions. Discover BC reported that the tourism sector is not expected to recover until 2024. The provincial budget will be tabled in April, which should provide insights into future government spending. The hardest hit sectors of the economy are calling on the province to provide further economic support. SURREY’S FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE In 2020, the world faced an unprecedented economic challenge in the form of the COVID- 19 pandemic. Businesses, governments, and people worldwide had to deal with the financial hardship brought on by this crisis. Playing an important leadership role in response to the financial impacts of COVID-19 on the City, its businesses, and residents, City Council approved the Surrey Economic Action and Recovery Plan (the “Recovery Plan”) in May 2020. The objective of the Recovery Plan was to help facilitate Surrey’s economic recovery from COVID-19 through a series of initiatives centered on encouraging and supporting residents, businesses, investments, and job creation opportunities in the City. Some of the key financial initiatives included in the Recovery Plan were: • 50% reduction of many fees relating to the development for new and in-stream projects with a construction value of greater than $25 million; • 90-day extension on late payment penalties for all property tax payments; • 90-day extension on annual flat water and sewer payments; • deferral of business license late payment penalties to provide relief to businesses that are late in paying their business license fees due to the financial impact of COVID-19; • process improvements to help the development and construction sectors citywide by expediting and streamlining permitting process; • implementation of the Parking to Patios program in order to facilitate the safe economic recovery for the restaurant and bar sector; and • Surrey Make PPE program that supports Surrey-based manufacturers to produce critical personal protective equipment (PPE) and helps to identify buyers for their products. Due to social distancing measures in place due to COVID-19, both the construction activity and the real estate sales activity were impacted in the first half of 2020. Overall development activity slowed down during the onset of the Pandemic and developers were waiting for some signs of economic recovery before continuing with their existing projects or start working on the projects that they were planning to undertake. Latter half of the year saw confidence in residential and commercial construction sector build up again and the City approved some significant development projects that will expand the residential and rental housing stock in the City.

City of Surrey | 2021—2025 Financial Plan | Financial Overview

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