Surrey eyes experience
But switching over to local police force and transit changes need OK of senior governments
Doug McCallum landed back in the Surrey mayor’s chair by capitalizing on voter dissatisfaction and making some big promises about policing, transit and development.
But if voters are hoping to hear details of how McCallum intends to make his substantial plans for the city a reality, they will have to wait a bit longer — the mayor-elect stayed out of the spotlight, avoiding calls, emails and texts Sunday.
Even his campaign manager, who emailed a brief statement on behalf of McCallum and the Safe Surrey Coalition candidates, didn’t know where he was or what he was doing.
“The Safe Surrey Coalition has been given a large mandate by the voters and we fully intend to deliver on the campaign promises,” the statement reads. “We wish the outgoing party all the best and hope they return in kind as we get to work for the people for Surrey.”
The night before, McCallum pulled off a stunning victory. The former mayor, who was in power from 1996 until 2005, took back his old seat by 17,000 votes, and seven members of his coalition were elected to council.
McCallum’s platform included three major commitments, one of which — as his party’s name suggests — has to do with public safety and policing.
McCallum has pledged to end the city’s contract with the RCMP at his first council meeting and start the process to bring in a municipal force that is governed by a local police board.
He has said it’s a public safety issue, but it’s also a matter of control, according to former three-term mayor Dianne Watts, who was a councillor under McCallum and ousted him from power in 2005. She said his stance on the RCMP is not new.
“He definitely did not get along with the RCMP and wanted them gone back then. He couldn’t control them,” Watts said.
She said change can be good, but the approach has to be pragmatic.
“Do the police have the tools that they need? Do they have the human resources? Are they serving the general public and does the city feel safe?” Watts said.
“You have to look at it and do an analysis. He hasn’t been there for 13 years and a lot of things have changed.”
Another major promise is to scrap the planned Surrey-Newton-Guildford lightrail project, a $1.65-billion line for which all of the government approvals and funding are in place.
Instead, he wants to redirect the money to SkyTrain from King George Station to Langley — even though the federal and provincial governments have said it’s not that simple.
“We’re going to stop the light-rail project and start to build SkyTrain right away,” he said Saturday.
Watts said LRT was a wedge issue, but there’s no reason why Surrey has to choose between at-grade light rail and SkyTrain.
“Surrey is vast — you can fit Vancouver, Burnaby and Richmond into the land base of Surrey so there’s no reason why you can’t have SkyTrain and LRT. It’s about shaping the city and moving people around,” she said.
During his time as mayor, McCallum was known for being pro development, advocating for an 81-storey tower late in his last term, but the Safe Surrey Coalition platform calls for “pausing” development because it has been happening too fast. At the same time, it talks about creating “high-density town centres” around SkyTrain stations.
Watts said it’s obvious that rapid development has changed many neighbourhoods, and a lot of people aren’t happy. She suggested the smart thing to do is make sure proper infrastructure — roads, schools, amenities — is in place and develop around that.
“In terms of slowing down development, I’m sure his development friends might not like that, but he’ll have to deal with that,” she said, refer- ring to his pro-development past and current support from developers, one of whom he thanked in his victory speech.
Neither of McCallum’s two biggest promises — which were the centrepieces of his campaign — can be accomplished without buy-in from higher levels of government.
The current contract with the RCMP began in April 2012 and is in force until March 2032. According to the terms of the agreement, it may be terminated on March 31 of any year by any party, as long as two years’ notice is given. There are no financial penalties for opting out.
Although it’s up to a municipality how it wants to be policed, it is Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth’s responsibility to ensure “adequate and effective policing” in B.C., so any change to policing is subject to Farnworth’s approval.
“The municipality has the obligation to provide policing, and before they consider giving notice (to end their current contract with the RCMP) they must have a minister-approved alternative model,” the ministry said in a statement.
Funding for the light-rail project came from the federal and provincial governments, which approved the money based on business cases. Both the prime minister and premier have said the funding is committed to the light-rail project.
If Surrey decides to stop the light-rail project, then it will have to once again go through TransLink, and business cases will have to be drawn up and submitted, along with new funding requests to upper levels of government.