Surrey removes controversial light-rail promotional signs
SURREY — At the direction of Elections B.C., Surrey has taken down signs promoting the approved and funded light-rail project — until after the Oct. 20 municipal election.
City of Surrey crews were out on Friday removing light-rail project signs that ran afoul of Elections B.C. advertising rules.
The signs are part of a city communications plan intended to educate the public about the proposed 10.5-kilometre, $1.65-billion Surrey-NewtonGuildford LRT project.
According to the city, the signs bore the logos of the project funders — the federal and provincial governments, TransLink and the City of Surrey — and were placed near future light-rail stops. The city said they were planned months ago, but were only installed after a joint federal and provincial government funding recommitment on Sept. 4.
“At the direction of Elections B.C., the City of Surrey has voluntarily complied and has removed all the signs for the duration of the election period,” the City of Surrey’s deputy city solicitor, Philip Huynh, said in a statement. “Our funding partners have been notified.”
Last week, Safe Surrey Coalition mayoral candidate Doug McCallum and council candidate Bableen Rana spoke out against the city’s draft LRT communications plan, saying the timing and content raised “serious concerns regarding bias and interference in the election.” They suggested that the city might have to register as a third-party advertiser if it proceeded with the plan, which included social-media messaging, event kiosks, community celebrations, a media blitz, speeches, presentations and the signs.
Under the Local Elections Campaign Financing Act, third-party election advertising is defined as “the transmission of a communication to the public during the campaign period that directly or indirectly promotes or opposes a candidate or elector organization, including a communication that takes a position on an issue associated with a candidate or elector organization.”
Elections B.C. said last week it was talking to the city and TransLink about its communications plan. The city’s manager of transportation said at the time that the city believed the public outreach and engagement in its plan complied with regulations and did not qualify as third-party advertising.
McCallum said on that the city’s LRT publicconsultation process ignored the wishes of the majority of people in Surrey, whom he believes don’t want at-grade light rail. McCallum’s party is in favour of scrapping the light-rail project in favour of extending SkyTrain to Langley.
“I don’t know why they’re doing it, why they’re jamming this thing down the throats of our community,” McCallum said. “We have to stop this.”
A spokesperson for Elections B.C. said in an email that “the LRT vs. Skytrain debate is a campaign issue associated with specific candidates” in Surrey’s election. “We reviewed the signs in question after receiving a complaint about them. While they do not directly or indirectly support a candidate or party, they do directly support LRT in Surrey, which is an issue associated with specific candidates,” Andrew Watson wrote.