Water Rates & Trends
Learn about water rates and trends in Surrey and in Metro Vancouver.
Property owners in Surrey who are on an annual flat rate receive a yearly property tax bill in February, which includes the utilities portion of water and sewer use for that calendar year.
Property owners who have a water meter are billed three times a year according to their water usage.
Water metering rates
Metro Vancouver wholesale price ($/m3) | metered rate ($/m3) | ||
| Year | Winter rate | Summer rate | Year-round rate |
| 2010 | 0.4505 | 0.5631 | 0.4972 |
| 2011 | 0.5135 | 0.6419 | 0.5650 |
| 2012 | 0.5437 | 0.6796 | 0.6407 |
| 2013 | 0.5504 | 0.6880 | 0.6880 |
| 2014 | 0.5724 | 0.7155 | 0.8708 |
| 2015 | 0.5816 | 0.7270 | 0.8950 |
| 2016 | 0.5926 | 0.7407 | 0.9300 |
| 2017 | 0.6113 | 0.7641 | 0.9660 |
| 2018 | 0.635 | 0.7938 | 1.0040 |
| 2019 | 0.6719 | 0.8399 | 1.0533 |
| 2020 | 0.7119 | 0.8899 | 1.1064 |
| 2021 | 0.7119 | 0.9546 | 1.1433 |
| 2022 | 0.7119 | 1.0371 | 1.1863 |
Note: Summer rate applies to water purchased from June to September, inclusively.
Water rate trends
Water rate trends indicate that both the annual flat rate and metered water rate have seen a steady increase in the last 11 years.
These rate increases are the result of Metro Vancouver's significant and ongoing drinking water facility upgrades, which have led to the wholesale water rate increase year over year.
Summary of rates
Metered rates
Metered rates are charged based on the consumption recorded by the meter installed at the property. When a meter is installed at the dwelling, owners pay for what they consume on their property.
A metered rate has two components to it:
- The first component is the portion that Metro Vancouver charges for delivering water to the boundaries of the City.
- The second component is the cost to the City to deliver the water from the boundaries to each property.
Together, these components make up the metered rate.
Annual flat rates
Annual flat rates are charged on existing homes built prior to 1998, which do not have a water meter. In the past, when the unit cost of water production was low, the fixed cost of providing water service to the consumers made up the major portion of water utilities' operation cost.
The cost of providing water service was spread evenly among all residential dwelling units, regardless of the type of dwelling, number of persons per dwelling unit, or their water consumption. As such, single family, town home, apartment and condominium units paid the same flat rate.