If you live in Port Moody, you’ve probably noticed the pressure: busier parks, crowded community centres, and growing strain on roads and services. Growth is happening fast – and infrastructure needs to keep up.

Normally, that cost isn’t supposed to fall on you.

Existing residents primarily pay for maintaining and replacing existing infrastructure through taxation. Port Moody has a Capital Asset Levy to sustainably plan for these costs.

Development charges are intended to pay for the costs of building new or expanded infrastrastructure through Development Cost Charges (DCCs) and Amenity Cost Charges (ACCs). These tools exist for one reason: to ensure growth pays for growth.

Roads. Sewers. Parks. Libraries. Community centres.

But here’s the problem: this council has been approving thousands of new units before updating these funding tools.

Let that sink in – approve first, figure out how to pay for it later.

Council has prioritized approving massive projects, including 39-storey towers in Moody Centre, while keeping development contribution rates among the lowest in the region.

And things just got worse. Council recently voted 6-1 (with only Councillor Haven Lurbiecki opposing) on a motion introduced by Mayor Lahti to further delay updating DCCs. 

Even though staff identified $306 million in DCC-eligible growth-related infrastructure costs over the next decade alone – and that’s based on acquiring only half the parkland needed to keep up with growth.

Even though if council had adopted staff’s recommended DCC increase there were still over $85 million in uncovered capital costs that would be on the backs of taxpayers*. 

Even though the current DCC rates council decided to keep do not come close to covering necessary infrastructure costs. 

Even though all of that, the council still voted to not increase DCCs.

And while the council did endorse draft ACCs – a new collection tool designed to work in tandem with DCCs – they were, you guessed it, amongst the lowest in the region.

And who pays for what’s not covered by DCCs or ACCs? You do. Through increased taxes.

Population growth costs are already being transferred to taxpayers. Port Moody’s property taxes have cumulatively increased by about 30% this term largely driven by growth-related service pressures**. Any infrastructure costs not covered by development fees will further increase a burden already being faced by residents.

“This is irresponsible. If we do not make these changes right now, we will be years behind, and that funding gap will be on the backs of taxpayers.”

– Councillor Haven Lurbiecki

In summary: development hasn’t been paying its fair share – and the current mayor and council majority just voted to keep it that way.

We know that at least four developers and a lobbyist organization wrote to Mayor Lahti and council against DCCs being increased. These letters were made available to the public only after the city council voted in alignment with the developers’ request.

Developers and some members of council claim we need to keep DCCs low to keep projects moving. But the evidence is clear***: lower DCCs don’t reliably reduce housing prices or deliver more homes – they do, however, guarantee one thing – shifting the cost of growth off development and onto Port Moody residents. And with thousands of condo units already in the pipeline, keeping marginal or undesirable projects alive shouldn’t be the City’s priority.

Bottom Line: Port Moody needs leadership that understands the true costs of growth and protects taxpayers – not one that prioritizes ensuring developers’ profit margins over the needs of the community. We all know Port Moody is a desirable place to build and is growing quickly. We need to ensure growth pays for growth.

A Port Moody Voice team once elected will do exactly that.

*From March 31, 2026 staff report “Based on a 10- year horizon (2026-2035), based on Parkland Option 5 (50%), the DCC program includes $306 million in capital projects for water, sanitary sewer, drainage, transportation, parkland acquisition (Option 5), and parkland improvements, along with several new DCC categories; protective services (fire) and solid waste facilities as shown in the proposed rates in the table below. Of this total, $221 million can be funded by DCCs and the remaining $85.3 million would need to be funded by other sources, which could include general taxation.”

**See Port Moody Voice post on this topic https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BXYvXWURY/

*** CMHC – housing research shows development charges are only one component of housing costs and do not alone determine housing supply or prices. https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/professionals/housing-markets-data-and-research/housing-research