Friday, February 6, 2026

Net Financial Assets or Debt by Municipality in Metro Vancouver - Langely City A-OK

Earlier this week, I posted about the debt load of municipalities in Metro Vancouver based on recently released 2024 local government financial information data from the provincial government. This is the latest year available from the provincial government.

Net financial assets or debt are an indicator used in public accounting. A full explanation is included in “Understanding Canadian Public Sector Financial Statements”. A short explanation is that a local government in a net debt situation will require additional financial resources (taxes, further debt, or funding from other orders of governent) to continue delivering services and investments in tangible capital assets such as roads, water, sewer, parks and other facilities, while a municipality in a net financial asset situation will be able to investement in tangible capital assets with exisiting resources.

While being in a net-debt situation doesn’t mean a municipality is broke, it is an indicator that a local government is using debt more than its own savings to fund capital assets. If the net-debt continues to increase over a period of time, it could indicate that a municipality’s revenue is not keeping pace with its capital improvement program. All municipalities in BC have a debt limit which they cannot exceed.

Municipalities Net Financial Assets or (Net Debt) at Year End
Township of Langley (8,529,000)
Bowen Island (245,281)
Belcarra 940,978
Lions Bay 4,348,455
Anmore 10,812,567
Pitt Meadows 34,864,663
Port Coquitlam 35,566,150
Langley City 51,584,299
Port Moody 66,233,649
White Rock 116,115,312
City of North Vancouver 133,668,685
New Westminster 139,599,807
West Vancouver 157,754,468
District of North Vancouver District 167,415,833
Maple Ridge 168,077,934
Delta 222,571,861
Coquitlam 1,010,804,000
Surrey 1,019,806,000
Richmond 1,212,467,935
Vancouver 1,489,852,000
Burnaby 2,101,833,906

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