In true Metro Vancouver style, the organization isn’t listening to voters or taxpayers: Linda Annis
Surrey, BC (July 28, 2026): Surrey First Councillor and candidate for mayor Linda Annis says a Metro Vancouver proposal to reduce the size of the organization’s board from 45 to 34 members does not go far enough. Annis said Lower Mainland municipalities should have one representative on the board and that should be the mayor, with a fair weighted and proportional representation system based on population.
Annis said having multiple directors from bigger cities does nothing but add costs that are passed along to taxpayers right across the region.
“The municipal representatives should be the mayors, and no one on the Metro board should be paid to attend meetings,” said Annis. “Attending Metro or Mayors Council meetings is part of the job and should not have additional fees attached to them. We do not need more directors from a city to accomplish a weighted or proportional vote based on a municipality’s population.”
Annis says Metro also needs to get back to the basics of water and sewer, which is where it began nearly 60 years ago.
“Reducing the Metro board by a few directors tells me the organization isn’t listening to voters or taxpayers who have had enough,” said Annis. “Metro Vancouver should be run like a utility and get out of all the other areas it has taken on, particularly in recent years. Today, Metro is involved in everything from parks and affordable housing, to economic development and planning, and along the way they have become another level of government that costs taxpayers more and more each year.”