municipal costs outpacing inflation and population growth, study findsRunaway city hall spendingPhoto: Mike Howell, BIV. report says municipal operating spending across the province has increasingly outpaced population growth and inflation. shows municipal operating expenditures are increasingly outpacing inflation and population growth combined. Had spending kept pace with population growth and CPI inflation since 2010, they would have spent $11.1 billion, or about $1.2 billion less. The council recommends “anchoring” municipal operating spending to population and inflation and to “re-establish provincial oversight of municipal and regional spending” via an expanded mandate for the B.C.