COQUITLAM, B.C., December 9, 2025 – Coquitlam’s 2026 Budget takes a balanced, responsible approach that recognizes today’s affordability challenges, while ensuring the City continues to deliver on the services and amenities the community relies on.
Coquitlam’s 2026 budget supports current needs without compromising the City’s long-term stability, helping to maintain resilience in a challenging economic time.
2026 Budget Highlights
- Property tax increase of $93 a year for the average household (3.37%).
- With utilities included, total of $137 a year (about $2.67/week).
- Investments in roads, utilities, parks and community facilities will be funded through a mix of taxes, utility fees, development revenues, grants and reserves.
- Cost-containment measures kept the increase lower than it would have been otherwise. This includes measures like reducing annual tax-funded capital allocations, optimizing interest income, and accelerating debt retirement to re-direct savings.
Supporting Residents in Challenging Times
Rising living costs, higher interest rates and economic uncertainty continue to affect households and businesses across the region. At the same time, the City is facing pressures of its own driven in different ways than consumers, including rising construction costs, regional utility rate increases, downloading responsibilities from the province and shifts in development-related revenue.
Thanks to strong financial management, careful planning and healthy reserves, Coquitlam is well-positioned to manage these challenges. The City will continue working to deliver high-quality core services, fund key infrastructure projects and respond to growth – while striving to limit the overall tax and utility impact.
Investing in the City’s Future
As Coquitlam grows, so does the need to invest in both new infrastructure to support growth and in the upkeep of existing assets that keeps the city running. Growth-related projects, such as expanding roads and utility infrastructure and advancing major community facilities, ensures the City can accommodate a larger population. At the same time, renewing roads and utilities, and maintaining parks and green spaces ensures continuation of reliable services and helps prevent higher costs in the future.
Affordable recreation, libraries, green spaces and safe streets remain essential to residents’ well-being – especially during times of economic uncertainty. The 2026 Budget balances the need for these services with the goal of keeping costs manageable. Development contributions, reserve funds and grants continue to help support the cost of growth-related infrastructure, so current homeowners are not shouldering a disproportioned burden.
Financial Pressures and Downloaded Costs
Inflationary pressures and downloaded costs from other orders of government continue to play a key role in driving the City’s annual operating budget.
While household goods are driven by the Consumer Price Index (around 2% in 2026), the City’s more complex costs for things like construction materials, pipes, concrete and labour are driven by a different inflationary rate closer to 5%.
At the same time, municipalities continue to see higher utility levies from Metro Vancouver, and downloaded costs from other orders of government – particularly the Provincial government.
A recent report to Council demonstrated how responsibilities traditionally funded or delivered by the Province are increasingly shifted to municipalities without the corresponding funding. In Coquitlam, this has resulted in approximately $37.6 million in direct costs between 2021 and 2024 for service gaps in areas such as homelessness, mental health and addiction, community safety and social supports, new costs due to provincial legislation, and reduced or stagnant provincial funding for shared programs such as library services.
Managing Costs and Resources
Community feedback again played a key role in shaping the budget, with residents and businesses highlighting affordability and reliable services as top priorities. In response, the City is continually looking for ways to reduce the impact on taxpayers without disrupting the essential services our community relies on, including:
- Repurposing vacant positions instead of hiring new staff.
- Investing in energy- and water-saving measures, such as LED traffic signals and water conservation efforts, to reduce long-term costs.
- Realigning reserve funds towards the City’s most pressing needs.
Coquitlam is committed to managing finances responsibly and avoiding undue burden for future generations. Transparency is central to this approach and the City will continue to share information across a range of channels including social media and the City’s website at coquitlam.ca/FinancialPlan.
See also:
Media contact:
Gorana Cabral
Acting General Manager Finance
604-927-3070
FinancialPlanning@coquitlam.ca
We acknowledge with gratitude and respect that the name Coquitlam was derived from the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ (HUN-kuh-MEE-num) word kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (kwee-KWET-lum) meaning “Red Fish Up the River”. The City is honoured to be located on the kʷikʷəƛ̓əm traditional and ancestral lands, including those parts that were historically shared with the q̓ic̓əy̓ (kat-zee), and other Coast Salish Peoples.