Council works despite differences, mayor says
When Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum and the members of his Safe Surrey Coalition took office two years ago, it was with an overwhelming eight-to-one majority on council.
Halfway through his four-year term, the council table looks quite different. Although McCallum maintains a majority, three of his coalition members have defected — two formed their own party and one is sitting as an independent — and there is a deep division between the five Safe Surrey councillors and the rest of council on major issues such as policing and the annual budget.
McCallum, however, believes council is functioning as it should.
“Yes, there's differences of opinion and some of them are pretty strong, but I don't think council is dysfunctional — it's not dysfunctional, it's working. It's working for the people of Surrey,” McCallum said during a virtual editorial board meeting with Postmedia on Thursday.
McCallum, who was quick to confirm he plans to run for re-election in 2022, praised the Safe Surrey councillors, calling them positive, forward-looking and a “very solid, the most solid” majority. Based on internal polling, he said, they believe they have the support of a majority of Surrey residents.
“It's the best board, or best council, that I have been on. I've been on a lot of boards also in my lifetime, and chaired most of them, and this council, the five, is certainly the best either board or committee that I've ever seen,” McCallum said.
He credited his majority on council with furthering agenda items that were in his party's election platform.
Later in the conversation, which covered a wide variety of topics, McCallum included the rest of council in his praise, saying good governance is one reason the city is booming. He said councillors are open to new ideas and there are initiatives on which they all agree.
“I would say not three-quarters, but half or maybe 40 per cent of all bylaws that go through, go through just about unanimously all the time. So, that's a council that actually is working fairly well,” he said.
McCallum was asked if he has made any attempts to build consensus with opposing councillors, considering they have to work together for another two years. He said he “continually, always” tries to work with them, but in his opinion they are not interested.
He gave the example that he had included them in recent committee appointments.
“They actually refused some of their committees, which surprised me. I haven't seen that in political life before and, you know, I've been mayor for 12 years,” he said.
Coun. Brenda Locke, a former Safe Surrey member who co-founded Surrey Connect, said McCallum has made no effort whatsoever to build bridges with the four council members who are not on his slate.
Instead, he has removed them from appointments to Metro Vancouver's board and committees as well as city committees, she said, and when they are placed on city committees it's not as chair. Locke said she and Coun. Jack Hundial refused to be on the parcel tax review committee to protest an increase to the levy.
“He's dreaming in Technicolor if he actually thinks he's reached out or shown leadership in any way,” she said. “He's nothing but a bully; that's who he is.”
However, it's not too late to change things, she said, and she would be open to hearing from McCallum if he did reach out.