Greater Vancouver Regional District

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Greater Vancouver Regional District, British Columbia, Canada

Motto: Building a sustainable region
Area	2,878.52 km²
Population
- Total (2005)  - Cdn. CD rank  - Density	2,139,890 3rd 748.95 / km²
MPs
Don Bell, Dawn Black, Raymond Chan, John M. Cummins, Libby Davies, Sukh Dhaliwal, Ujjal Dosanjh, David Emerson, Hedy Fry, Nina Grewal, Russ Hiebert, Peter Julian, Randy Kamp, James Moore, Stephen Owen, Penny Priddy, Bill Siksay, Mark Warawa, Blair Wilson
MLAs
Val Anderson, Tony Bhullar, Harry Bloy, Jagrup Brar, Elayne Brenzinger, Gordon Campbell, Christy Clark, Rich Coleman, Gary Collins, Kevin Falcon, Greg Halsey-Brandt, Colin Gordon Hansen, Randy Hawes, Dave Hayer, Gordon J. Hogg, Daniel Javis, Jenny Wai Ching Kwan, Richard T. Lee, Brenda Locke, Joy MacPhail, Karn Manhas, Reni Masi, Lorne Mayencourt, Joyce Murray, Ted Nebbeling, Rob Nijjar, John Nuraney, Wally Oppal, Geoff Plant, Linda Reid, Val Roddick, Patty Sahota, Lynn Stephens, Ken Stewart, Richard Stewart, Ralph Sultan, Katherine Whittred, Patrick Wong
Board Chair	Marvin Hunt
Governing body	Greater Vancouver Regional District Board of Directors
Greater Vancouver Regional District
Municipalities in GVA
Anmore Belcarra Bowen Island Burnaby Coquitlam Delta Langley Langley DM Lions Bay Maple Ridge New Westminster N.Vancouver North Vancouver DM Pitt Meadows Port Coquitlam Port Moody Richmond Surrey Vancouver West Vancouver White Rock Electoral District A A

The Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) is a regional district within the Canadian province of British Columbia, Canada. It comprises the metropolitan area surrounding the city of Vancouver, and is essentially synonymous with Greater Vancouver or the Vancouver Metropolitan Area. The seat is in Burnaby while the principal city is Vancouver. A proposal has been made to use ‘Metro Vancouver’ as a trade name for the GVRD.^[1]

Contents 1 Geography 2 Municipalities 3 Administrative role 4 Fuel Taxes 5 Notes 6 External links

[edit] Geography

The Greater Vancouver Regional District occupies the southwest corner of mainland British Columbia. It comprises the western half of the Lower Mainland.

According to the 2001 census, 1,986,965 people live in the metropolitan area, about half of the population of British Columbia. GVRD estimates (2005) have placed the population at 2,155,880, representing 8.5% growth since the last census^[2]. Thirteen of the province's thirty most populous municipalities are located in the GVRD^[3]. The official land area of the district is 2,878.52 km² (1,111.4 sq mi). It is the most densely populated regional district in British Columbia.

[edit] Municipalities

The Regional District consists of twenty-one incorporated municipalities and one unincorporated area. The twenty-one municipalities are:

Municipality	Type	Population	Year
Anmore	village	1,673	2005
Belcarra	village	723	2005
Bowen Island	island municipality	3,424	2005
Burnaby	city	204,324	2005
Coquitlam	city	121,973	2005
Delta	district municipality	102,655	2005
Langley	city	25,716	2005
Langley	district municipality	97,125	2005
Lions Bay	village	1,421	2005
Maple Ridge	district municipality	73,280	2005
New Westminster	city	57,480	2005
North Vancouver	city	46,759	2005
North Vancouver	district municipality	87,083	2005
Pitt Meadows	city	16,673	2005
Port Coquitlam	city	57,563	2005
Port Moody	city	28,458	2005
Richmond	city	173,430	2005
Surrey	city	393,137	2005
Vancouver	city	583,267	2005
West Vancouver	district municipality	44,149	2005
White Rock	city	19,577	2005

The unincorporated Greater Vancouver Regional District Electoral Area A comprises all unincorporated land within the Regional District boundaries, including the University Endowment Lands and Barnston Island in the Fraser River. The population of Electoral District A is 8,813 (2005).

There are also seventeen Indian reserves within the geographical area that are not subject to governance by the municipalities or the Regional District; they have a combined population of 7,177 (2005).

[edit] Administrative role

The principal function of the Greater Vancouver Regional District is to administer resources and services which are common across the metropolitan area. These include community planning, water, sewage, drainage, housing, transportation, air quality, and parks.

For example, GVRD Regional Parks oversees the development and maintenance of nineteen regional parks, as well as various nature reserver and greenways. (The regional parks are distinct from municipal parks in that they are typically more "wild" and represent unique geographical zones within the region, such as bogs and mature rainforests.)

Although, the GVRD's water system covers more than 2,600 square kms, all the water for the district comes from three sources: the Capilano reservoir, the Seymour reservoir, and the Coquitlam reservoir. The GVRD controls with Cleveland Dam on the Capilano reservoir, which supplies 40 percent of the district's water.^[4]

The Greater Vancouver Regional District also oversees TransLink, which administers public transportation and major bridges and highways throughout the region. TransLink also runs the AirCare program, which primarily aims to improve air quality by reducing harmful emissions from automobiles. In the period 1992 to 2002, this program is credited with reducing the air emissions in the urban area by thirty-five percent.

One current initiative of the GVRD is the Ashcroft, British Columbia, Ranch Mega-Landfill Proposal.

[edit] Fuel Taxes

The tax on clear gas and clear diesel dedicated to Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority (Translink) purchased in the Greater Vancouver transportation service region is 12¢ per litre. ^[5]

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Official Site
• GVRD Regional Parks

v • d • e Largest and smallest census divisions of Canada
Province / Territory		Area (km²)						Population (2001)
		Largest			Smallest			Largest			Smallest
Alberta		Division No. 17	192,055.15		Division No. 8	9,908.36		Div. No. 6 (Calgary)	1,021,060		Division No. 4	11,300
British Columbia		Stikine Region	132,496.21		Nanaimo	2,034.94		Gtr. Vancouver	1,986,965		Stikine Region	1,316
Manitoba		Division No. 23	242,016.21		Division No. 11	572.12		Division No. 11	621,451		Division No. 23	8,989
New Brunswick		North'land Cnty.	12,112.44		St. John Cnty.	1,462.43		Westmorland Cnty.	124,688		Queens County	11,862
Newf'land & Labrador		Division No. 10	269,073.30		Division No. 2	6,099.04		Division No. 1	242,875		Division No. 3	19,370
Northwest Territories		Fort Smith Rgn.	618,360.38		Inuvik Region	522,747.99		Fort Smith Rgn.	28,824		Inuvik Region	8,536
Nova Scotia		Halifax Reg. Mun.	5,495.54		Richmond Cnty.	1,244.28		Halifax Reg. Mun.	359,183		Victoria County	7,962
Nunavut		Baffin Region	1,023,570.49		Keewatin Rgn.	444,680.40		Baffin Region	14,372		Kitikmeot Rgn.	4,816
Ontario		Kenora District	407,167.33		Toronto Div.	629.91		Toronto Div.	2,481,494		Manitoulin Dist.	12,679
Prince Edward Island		Queens County	2,020.17		Kings County	1,684.35		Queens County	71,619		Kings County	19,180
Quebec		Nord-du-Québec	747,719.86		Laval	247.07		Montreal	1,812,723		L'Île-d'Orléans	6,779
Saskatchewan		Division No. 18	268,498.80		Division No. 10	12,223.73		Division No. 11	237,629		Division No. 4	11,714
Largest and smallest areas and populations in italics. Yukon (area 474,706.97 km²; 2001 population 28,674) is treated as a single census division.