2026-2030 Financial Plan

The City’s annual budget is part of a five-year financial plan that sets out the planned services and initiatives for the next five years, and how the City will pay for them. The annual operating budget pays for a wide variety of City services that residents and businesses rely on every day.

The 2026 budget for Port Coquitlam will once again shield taxpayers from rising costs within the City’s control, while continuing to provide essential civic services. For 2026, the City is proposing a $129.4-million draft operating budget that includes a 1.95% property tax increase for the average home, one of the lowest proposed increases in Metro Vancouver, while continuing to deliver essential civic services despite rising costs and financial pressures beyond the City’s control. Approximately 73% of the proposed increase is driven by mandated RCMP and labour agreement costs, with the remainder reflecting inflation, higher service-provider fees, and long-term infrastructure funding.

Watch your mailbox for the annual Budget at a Glance, learn more about the budget below on this webpage, and take the online survey. The annual budget survey provides the City with insights about community priorities that guide decision-making year-round.

View Budget at a Glance [PDF/888KB]

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2026 Budget Survey

Take our survey by February 8 to help shape our 2026 budget. Residents who share input can enter to win a $150 gift card to a local PoCo business!

Take Survey

More About The 2026 Budget

Costs Beyond the City’s Control

Port Coquitlam’s $129.4-million draft 2026 budget once again strives to shield taxpayers from rising costs – both those within the City’s control and beyond it – while continuing to provide essential civic services.

About three-quarters of this year’s proposed increase relates to mandated costs such as the federally-negotiated RCMP contract and labour contracts. Likewise, Metro Vancouver utility charges will make up the majority of the 2026 utility bill increases.

More details about costs faced by the City:

· Increased costs related to RCMP services.

· Metro Vancouver cost escalation for the purchase of water and disposal of liquid waste.

· Increased staffing costs for CUPE and IAFF based on current labour contracts.

· Inflationary cost pressures to various contracted services, software, materials and supplies.

· Costs related to continuing responsibilities from provincial legislation, including housing.

· Continuing need to support long-term infrastructure replacement.

Council Priorities

The City’s draft budget and service delivery for 2026 are guided by the 2023-2026 Council priorities along with community feedback received throughout the year through the annual budget survey and other public consultation.

Overall, the draft budget reflects the City’s ongoing focus on getting the basics right – planning and providing core municipal services (such as roads, utilities and other infrastructure, safety and recreation) that matter to residents and businesses.

Faced with an uncertain economy and various rising costs beyond the City’s control, Port Coquitlam has focused on maintaining existing service levels and taxpayer affordability in 2026.

Tactics to reduce the tax impact for 2026 included:

· Department efficiencies through line-by-line review

· Deferral of non-critical items

· Selective use of reserves and surplus accounts

· Leveraging of provincial and federal grant funding

· Tax revenue from new development (growth)

As a result, Port Coquitlam’s proposed tax increase for 2026 is among the lowest in Metro Vancouver, based on reported information. Over the past five years, the City’s tax and utility increases have been significantly less than the regional average.

See the How We Compare section below.

Municipal property taxes and levies for the average Port Coquitlam home (assessed at $1,126,339) are proposed to increase in 2026 by $45.34 (1.95%) – one of the lowest proposed increases in the region. A similar percentage increase is proposed for business taxes.

Charges from Metro Vancouver and external service providers make up the majority of the increases for 2026 utility levies.

· The water levy increase of 6.53% ($34.39) in 2026 includes City savings of 0.99%, which partly offset the Metro Vancouver increase of 7.52%.

· The sewer levy increase of 8.97% ($46.49) includes 2.52% from the City and 6.45 per cent from Metro Vancouver.

· The solid waste levy for homes receiving City waste services has risen 2.59%, or $8.40, more than half of which is due to increased costs for external service providers.

Please note: These figures are based on last year’s property assessment values and do not include the regional and provincial taxes that also appear on the annual property tax bill and are beyond the City’s control. See below about the potential impact of a property’s assessed value.

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A property’s assessed value determines its share of taxes. The assessments provided by BC Assessment each January indicate how much Port Coquitlam property assessments increased or decreased from the prior year.

Properties whose value has increased or decreased more or less than other typical properties of the same type will experience a tax rate that differs from the average. For more details, see the assessment mailed to you the week of January 15.