Vow to freeze Surrey taxes challenged at election event

Surrey’s seven mayoral candidates came together to talk about supporting small businesses, housing, and community safety at the Downtown Surrey Business Improvement Association’s all-candidates meeting on Sept. 23. 

The forum was organized as a Jeopardy-style game, with candidates being able to choose their question from the five categories: community and safety, housing, transit, leadership, growth, and economic development. The event was moderated by DSBIA director-at-large Jordan Bateman, who even dawned a sparkly blazer to embody the role of game show host. 

New Surrey+ mayoral candidate Igal Ammons-II started off the event answering which city-led housing measure he believes would most effectively allow people who work in Surrey to live here. Ammons pivoted his answer to addressing homelessness and said he would create a panel consisting of members appointed by the mayor, premier and prime minister to find solutions. 

Other than forming a panel, Ammons did not name a specific initiative he would take to get people housed — he also did not mention the city’s current homelessness response and prevention plan. 

Troy Van Vliet from Surrey NOW plans to implement a rent-to-own program to help with home ownership, especially among youth. 

“[The program] would actually help bridge the gap for our youth to own in the city … as soon as they start actually renting in a home that they’re actually going to eventually own they’re going to have a sense of ownership the day they move in,” said Van Vliet.  

Candidates had several ideas on how to better community safety — Mayor Brenda Locke, who is seeking re-election with Surrey Connect, took on the question of whether she would first fund more police officers or new technology.

Instead of choosing, Locke said she’d fund both and pointed to the city’s recent purchase of land to build a public safety campus to train first responders. 

Safe Surrey Coalition candidate and former Surrey mayor Doug McCallum highlighted his role in starting the transition from RCMP to the Surrey Police Service. McCallum said the SPS needs new technology and promised to get funding for a police helicopter. 

Surrey First mayoral candidate and current Coun. Linda Annis said, if elected, she would partner with non-for-profits to deal with illegal dumping and graffiti. She added those who knowingly illegally dump should face heavy fines and the city should be able to respond to complaints within 48 hours. 

On how Annis would work with councillors from other parties, Annis said each councillor should have a mandate letter similar to how provincial ministries receive one outlining their goals and priorities.  

“Everyone [should be] working together as a team. Together we can get a lot more done than working independently,” she said. Annis added that council should also be meeting regularly with Surrey’s MPs and MLAs to ensure Surrey is being supported by all levels of government. 

When asked which transit project should be the city’s next investment, McCallum said the SkyTrain, while Imagine Surrey’s Mike Starchuk spoke about bus rapid transit. 

With how many people pass though King George Boulevard, McCallum said it should be easy to justify the need for a SkyTrain down the corridor. While McCallum often points to his success in lobbying for the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain extension, it was also his office that cancelled the initial proposed light rail transit down King George. 

Starchuk pushed back at McCallum’s claims and said it’s clear the province will not be funding any new SkyTrain — the province is currently facing an unprecedented deficit. He added that the BRT is already coming to Surrey and the city should prioritize building the business case for that. 

Candidates also spent a good chunk of the forum discussing how they would support economic growth in the city. 

Surrey Conservative Party candidate Honveer Singh Randhawa has promised to freeze taxes for four years on commercial and residential properties and cut taxes by $600 for every homeowner. Throughout the forum, Randhawa stressed the conservatives “are standing by the commitment of managing the taxes … it’s not an easy change, but it must be done.”

When questioned about how services and projects will be funded with no increase in tax revenue, Randhawa said he would not cut any essential services, but money would not be spent on unnecessary expenditures like an arena. 

However, later Randhawa agreed that Surrey needs to invest into its entertainment district and bolster local shopping and activities. He proposed creating a group dedicated to listening to residents of differing age groups to learn about what they want to see in their city. 

Starchuck said he would help retain local businesses by ensuring they have the “tools and courage” to report extortion issues. He also wants business owners to have the ability to report the crime in different languages and hear back within 48 hours. 

Locke was posed the question of what Surrey’s economic priority should be — she said the city has to protect its assets, while also utilizing them, but mentioned nothing specific on how exactly she would accomplish this.  

On whether he would support an independent auditor general position, Van Vliet said yes, but does not necessarily want an auditor general. Instead, he wants to move auditors outside the finance department and have them report to the mayor directly — currently the city uses external auditing services. 

He added he plans to implement a $0 budget base, so that departments would have to justify their spending every four years.

“That will hopefully bring some more accountability and clarity in this type of information [and] the audits need to be made public,” said Van Vliet.