Regional Districts
Regional districts were first created across British Columbia in 1966–1967 to form bodies for inter-municipal coordination and to extend municipal-level powers to areas outside existing municipalities. Today, the Lower Mainland includes two Regional Districts: the Greater Vancouver Regional District and the Fraser Valley Regional District (FVRD). Both regional districts, however, include areas outside the traditional limits of the Lower Mainland, and the Fraser Valley as a term includes much of the GVRD.
The Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) is made up of 21 municipalities. The GVRD is bordered on the west by the Strait of Georgia, to the north by the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District, on the east by the Fraser Valley Regional District, and to the south by Whatcom County, Washington, in the United States.
The Fraser Valley Regional District lies east of the Greater Vancouver Regional District, and comprises the cities of Abbotsford and Chilliwack, the district municipalities of Mission, Kent, and Hope, and the village of Harrison Hot Springs. It also includes many unincorporated areas in the Fraser Valley and along the west side of the Fraser Canyon (the Fraser Canyon is not in the Lower Mainland).
Regional district powers are very limited and other localized provincial government services are delivered through other regionalization systems.
Read more about this topic: Lower Mainland
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