Metro’s budget meeting Friday should be cancelled out of ‘respect’ for voters, McCallum says
Published 12:00 pm Wednesday, October 28, 2026
The outgoing Metro Vancouver Board will decide Friday if it will vote on the 2027 budget and five-year financial plan or defer it to a future board meeting.
Surrey mayor-elect Doug McCallum called for the latter, saying the meeting should be cancelled altogether as voters on October 17 replaced 13 mayors in 21 municipalities and incoming politicians should deal with the matter.
“Thirteen days after voters replaced 13 mayors, the old board plans to sit down and pass next year’s budget. That is not how you treat voters,” McCallum argued. “I am calling on the board chair and the directors to cancel Friday’s meeting. If something truly cannot wait four weeks, deal with that one item and leave everything else for the board the voters chose. Nothing in 1,190 pages is more urgent than that.”
Friday’s is the outgoing board’s final meeting before new councils are sworn in next week. McCallum noted the board’s next regular meeting after Fridays is set for November 27, by which time the new councils are running and will have chosen directors, and that by law the board has until March 31 to adopt its financial plan.
“It is about respect for the voters,” McCallum said. “Surrey holds 29 votes on that board, and not one of them should be cast on next year’s budget by anyone other than the directors chosen by the council Surrey elected on October 17.”
Jillian Glover, Metro’s program manager, media relations and issues management, told the Now-Leader the board will consider other items also during Friday’s meeting. “At that time, the board could make a decision on whether they will receive items for information or refer it to a future board meeting,” she said. “The Local Government Act recognizes the continuity of the board and that the board of a regional district can finish what it started.”
The budget set to be considered Friday stems from a process that began in April involving public consultation and proposes a $17 – 1.9 per cent – tax increase over last year that is lower than the three per cent target that was proposed.
Glover noted the budget is typically considered and approved in October to give cities time to develop their own financial plans for next year. “The timing is consistent with Metro Vancouver’s established budget process,” she said.
Meantime, during the election campaign McCallum said his Safe Surrey Coalition, if elected with a majority – which it was – will “withdraw from the Metro Vancouver Regional District, remaining connected only for core utility services: water, sewer and waste.”
The new Surrey council’s inaugural meeting is Monday, November 2.