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
1Geography
2Municipalities
3Administrative role
4Fuel Taxes
5Notes
6External links
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.
Municipalities
The Regional District consists of twenty-one incorporated municipalities and one unincorporated area. The twenty-one municipalities are:
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).
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.
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]
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