The City of Surrey dropped their proposed 2026-2030 budget/financial plan detailing how they will raise and spend money in the next five years.
How does this impact transit riders? First, here’s a crash course on who funds what:
| Budget | What does it fund? | How is it paid for? |
| TransLink budget | Running buses, trains, and ferries | 45% taxes (property and gas tax, mainly) 33% transit fares20% funding from province and federal gov’t |
| City budget (Surrey, Vancouver, Burnaby, etc.) | Everything on the street: shelters, sidewalks, lighting, benches, bus lanes, traffic signals | Mainly property taxes, but also development fees and funding from province, federal gov’t, and a little bit from TransLink |
| Provincial budget | 2/3rds of major projects (SkyTrain construction) and 15% of TransLink’s budget | Mainly taxes: income, sales, corporate, etc. |
| Federal budget | 1/3rd of major projects (SkyTrain construction) and about 5% of TransLink’s budget | Mainly taxes: income, sales, corporate, etc. |
So when Movement looks at a city budget, we’re hoping for increased investments in streets, to make life better for transit users. These are some of the ways the City of Surrey can make your transit experience better:
- Add sidewalks on streets that are missing them, or repair broken sidewalks
- Add crosswalks and signals so that people can cross safely
- Add lighting so people don’t feel unsafe at night
- Add shelters and benches
- Add bus lanes and other transit priority measures to make buses faster and more reliable!
Surrey can get some funding contributions from TransLink to do these things, but this funding is minor. Besides, Surrey doesn’t wait for someone else to pay for car-focused projects, so why should they delay transit and pedestrian projects? Cities like Burnaby are taking initiative and rapidly investing in bus shelters, because it’s a priority for them.
There are two sections of the budget that are relevant to us:
- $358 million in capital funding for roads
- The budget doesn’t break out how much of that is meant for transit or walking. This is crucial information that we’re missing.
- Roads and Traffic Safety Levy
- Unique to Surrey, this small levy can be used for pedestrian improvements but also for road widening.
Surrey residents want more investment in transportation
Surrey went big on community consultation for this budget, and guess what?!
Transportation crushed it as the #1 priority: 60% of respondents put it front and center. Drilling down: 73% want better road maintenance, 53% sidewalks.
But the real fire was in the open-ended comments. Folks vented hard about crushing traffic congestion and begging for more public transit investment.
Here’s the gold, their actual words that hit home:
- I support the City’s efforts to promote and expand active transport options. Cars are a growing problem so active transport and public transit options should be a high priority.
- Improving transit throughout the city to help reduce traffic by encouraging public transit.
- Prioritize the essentials needed to support a growing population (schools, transit, etc).
- Keep investing in public infrastructure please. We are a growing City.
So this $358M roads and transportation pot sounds impressive until you realize it’s heavy on road widening projects and car lanes that won’t touch the real congestion monster. We’ve said it before and will continue to say it: Studies show that when you add more lanes and roads, you actually make congestion worse.
What actually works? Giving people an alternative to driving that’s actually good. The new SkyTrain extension is going to bring tens of thousands more people onto transit in Fleetwood, Clayton and Cloverdale. Cheap, high-impact bus priority measures like dedicated lanes, queue jumps, signal priority on busy routes, plus the basics transit riders need such as better sidewalks, shelters and lighting.
So what do we think of the budget?
It’s really hard to know from this document how much Surrey is investing in the things that we need, like bus lanes and crosswalks. Budgets are the most concrete reflection of a city’s values, and we think it falls short. We want the city to set ambitious goals to improve transit, and we want them to talk about it!
Take two minutes and let them know what you think!
The full budget is up on the City of Surrey website now, and you can provide your comments in two ways.
- In person at a public meeting of the Finance Committee on Monday, March 9, 2026.
- Through written submissions sent by email to clerks@surrey.ca or online form. The deadline for written comments is 12:00pm on Friday, March 6, 2026.
Even after that, you can always email mayor and council. Remember, they work for you!
Tell them what matters to you:
- Do you have a location in mind where you need better sidewalks, crosswalks, shelters, or bus lanes? Tell them why it matters to you. Does it affect the safety and prosperity of you, your children, or your grandparents? That could be very persuasive.
- Ask them when you can expect the situation to be rectified.
- If you don’t have a specific example, ask them if they have a plan to invest in walking and transit, and what their targets are. How long will it take them to reach those targets?
- Remind them that transportation was a higher priority for residents than safety, and that transit usage in Surrey has grown dramatically in the last five years.