A typical home will pay $513 to Metro Vancouver next year for regional services – an increase of $44 – despite opposition from some mayors and councillors.

The regional district's 2011 budget passed Friday, raising regional spending 5.8 per cent to $603 million.

The $33-million increase includes money to hire an additional 24 full-time staff that several directors questioned as excessive.

But the board rejected a push from some directors to cut some contentious items – including $295,000 worth of planned spending on international travel.

"There are so many stupid things in there when you add them all together they add up to real money," said Pitt Meadows Mayor Don MacLean, listing spending on a web-based regional arts and culture calendar and drinking water wagons to try to reduce bottled water use.

Also voted down was a proposed amendment by City of Vancouver directors that the budget be redrawn to cap the increase in regional government spending – a smaller part of the budget that excludes water, sewage and waste handling – at no more than two per cent, instead of the 3.9 per cent jump now approved.

The measure would have saved just 70 cents per household, according to Surrey Coun. Marvin Hunt, who noted the main effect would have been to cut spending on the regional parks system, which makes up half of that part of the budget.

"I don't think that's where our constituents want us going for 70 cents," he said.

Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan, who voted for the budget and against Vancouver's effort at modest cost control, said it was too late in the budget process to perform major surgery.

He accused Vancouver councillors – who hold influential positions on the finance, water and waste committees – of repeatedly pressing Metro to spend more on priorities that fit their green agenda without consideration of the ultimate costs.

"Now that they've seen the final numbers, they've got buyer's remorse," Corrigan said. "I consistently voted against stuff all year, saying it's going to cost us a lot of money."

Corrigan said the budget needed to pass but he welcomes a debate in the months ahead on what services Metro should not attempt to provide.

Surrey Coun. Linda Hepner backs a review to tighten Metro's mandate, particularly in light of the move to add another two dozen employees.

"The taxpayer is getting squeezed from all directions," she said. "Honestly, I think we have to look at doing some of the work within existing resources."

Much of the escalating costs are out of Metro directors' control.

Tighter drinking water standards set by the federal government forced Metro to build the $800-million Seymour-Capilano water filtration project and now add ultraviolet disinfection to the Coquitlam reservoir.

Water rates will rise 14 per cent next year as a result, and the average home will pay $213 for water alone, up $23.

Tougher federal standards are likewise spurring Metro to spend $1.4 billion upgrading sewage treatment plants that send minimally treated effluent into the ocean.

The Lions Gate plant that discharges into Burrard Inlet will be rebuilt within 10 years, while the Iona plant discharging into the Strait of Georgia between Richmond and Vancouver is to be upgraded to secondary treatment within 20 years.

"We have to take better care of the planet," North Vancouver City Mayor Darrell Mussatto said. "We can't be dumping untreated sewage into the inlet any more."

More than $80 million is to be spent on sewer capital projects next year, including new mains and pumping stations to handle growth of the region's population.

Waste tipping fees are going up 18 per cent to $97 per tonne, ironically because recycling is on the upswing and less garbage is being generated.

As residents and businesses reduce the amount of garbage they generate per capita, less money is raised from tipping fees, so the fees have to rise to cover the system's fixed costs.

Waste spending is also going up to fund new initiatives to help increase the recycling rate to a target of 70 per cent by 2015.

"We've got to sort out the compostables, we've got to sort out the recyclables and that costs money," Mussatto said.

Other directors question earmarking an extra $10 million or more for expansion of the regional parks and greenways system.

Metro is also spending more to fix leaky affordable housing complexes it runs, as well as increasing air quality testing and enforcement.

More money is also going to seismic upgrades so critical water lines still work after an earthquake and $6.5 million will be spent to upgrade the emissions system at Metro's Burnaby garbage incinerator.

Delta Mayor Lois Jackson noted taxpayers are being hit not just by Metro but in some cases rising civic taxes and also a possible property tax hike from TransLink.

METRO AVERAGE 2011 COST PER HOME

(based on $600,000 home)

Regional taxes – $39 (up $2)

Sewage fees – $170 (up $8)

Garbage disposal – $91 (up $11)

Water rates – $213 (up $23)