Council in Surrey, B.C., is set to vote Monday evening on whether it should ask the province to enact a charter that would give British Columbia's second-largest city by population powers similar to Vancouver.

Almost all municipalities in B.C. apart from Vancouver are governed by provincial legislation called the Community Charter, which sets out broad powers like property taxes, bylaw enforcement and municipal services.

But with Surrey's population estimated to overtake Vancouver's as soon as 20…