Locke made a similar major events venue announcement during her 2024 State of the City<\/a> address, when she first revealed her proposal to build a new 12,000-seat indoor arena or outdoor stadium, and that a feasibility study would be conducted to examine the concept and possible locations in Surrey City Centre and the Cloverdale Fairgrounds.<\/p>\n Since then, this effort has zeroed in on pursuing a new 10,000-seat indoor arena on the City-owned site of the BC Lions training facility in Surrey City Centre. The bid process seeking a developer, operator, and anchor sports tenant was launched early this year, and it will close later this month, with Locke noting an announcement could be made early this summer. The City is preparing to set aside up to $200 million to help fund the project, which would also include a hotel, conference space, retail\/restaurant space, and possibly residential and office uses.<\/p>\n Three new ice rinks for South Surrey, and a 15-acre public safety campus<\/p>\n She also announced today her proposal to build a new complex of three ice rinks next to the existing Grandview Heights Aquatic Centre in South Surrey, which she says will help serve one of the fast growing areas of the city, and a 15-acre public safety campus in the Anniedale-Tynehead area, which would provide a citywide consolidated hub for training more specialized police, fire, and emergency personnel.<\/p>\n \u201cIt will support police training, fire services, emergency preparedness, search and rescue, by-law operations, forensics, special support, specialized support, drone operations, and other public safety partnerships. That will be centrally located with access to key corridors, and it gives Surrey the space and the structure to plan for the next generation of public safety services,\u201d said the mayor.<\/p>\n Police, fire, and City bylaw facilities would also be improved and expanded in Surrey City Centre, South Surrey, and Cloverdale to better support local-specific demands.<\/p>\n Locke also announced a new public safety operations plan that adds 560 police officers, firefighters, bylaw officers, and other staff over five years. This is intended to create a stronger emergency personnel presence across Surrey, reduce response times, and enable police to focus more on serious crimes, with the jurisdiction currently experiencing a wave of extortion-related crime. As well, there would be an expanded use of drones to support public safety response.<\/p>\n \u201cA city approaching one million people cannot rely on the old infrastructure, scattered facilities, outdated models. We must build for the city we are becoming,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She also reaffirmed in-progress plans to build a new interactive art museum in Surrey City Centre<\/a>, a new permanent Surrey Sports Hall of Fame in Surrey City Centre, and other cultural spaces, the partnership to achieve Surrey City Centre\u2019s Centre Block complex anchored by Simon Fraser University\u2019s new medical school<\/a>, and the plans to construct the new Newton Community Centre, which will feature an aquatic centre with a 50-metre pool, two gymnasiums, a major public library branch, and other community and recreational spaces. At a cost of over $300 million, this will be the largest community facility investment in the City\u2019s history, and it will anchor the future high-density, mixed-use residential neighbourhood planned by the municipal government and TransLink<\/a> that will create the core of Newtown Town Centre.<\/p>\n City of Surrey staff \u201cdo a lot with a little\u201d<\/p>\n Locke also vowed to maintain what she described as a disciplined and efficient approach to municipal spending, with the goal of holding the annual property tax increase to a relatively low rate of 2.6 per cent.<\/p>\n As part of that approach, she compared the City of Surrey\u2019s staffing levels with those of the City of Vancouver, noting that Vancouver has roughly twice as many staff.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do a lot with a little,\u201d Locke said, praising her City staff as \u201cproblem solvers\u201d who continually find ways to deliver services efficiently. She argued that the City of Surrey does not have \u201cthe luxury of being slow\u201d or building layers of bureaucracy, adding that City Hall must move \u201cwith the speed of the city with discipline, common sense, and a business-minded approach.\u201d<\/p>\n Locke emphasized that every dollar spent by the City ultimately comes from local households and businesses, saying municipal leaders must remain mindful of the financial pressures residents are facing.<\/p>\n While the City continues to invest heavily in growth and infrastructure, she said the City is also working to keep taxes \u201camongst the lowest in the region\u201d \u2014 something she acknowledged is \u201cnot easy, but it\u2019s necessary\u201d at a time when many families are being squeezed by affordability challenges.<\/p>\n She added that affordability is about more than just taxes, arguing that municipal governments also need to provide families with places to gather, activities to enjoy, and opportunities to connect without \u201cconstantly asking them to pay more.\u201d Locke said that philosophy is one reason free public events have become such a central part of Surrey\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n Surrey City Hall. (City of Surrey)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With just months to go before the October 2026 civic election, Surrey mayor Brenda Locke took the opportunity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":["post-670673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"surrey](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/surrey-city-hall-f.jpg\"\/ "\\"\\"")
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