Imagine Surrey wants to turn Cloverdale Fairgrounds into \u2018world-class destination\u2019<\/p>\n
Published 10:30 am Friday, May 15, 2026<\/p>\n
Mike Starchuk and his Imagine Surrey slate have big plans for the Cloverdale Fairgrounds and city farmland.<\/p>\n
Starchuk issued a press release May 15 detailing plans to protect the ALR, give the Cloverdale Rodeo special event status, restore the Cloverdale Fairgrounds into a world-class destination, launch a \u201cBuy Surrey\u201d program, and launch a citywide food security strategy.<\/p>\n
\u201cSurrey\u2019s farmland feeds families across the Lower Mainland, supports thousands of jobs, and anchors the Cloverdale, Hazelmere, and Mud Bay communities that make our city special,\u201d Starchuk said in the release. \u201cAs a city councillor, I championed the September in Surrey farm-to-table dining experience in restaurants across every town centre, and I celebrated our agricultural heritage at festivals featuring the world\u2019s largest blueberry pie. Not a single hectare of ALR land was lost during my time on Council. As mayor, I will protect that land \u2014 and I will give the Cloverdale Rodeo and Fairgrounds the support they need to put Surrey on the world map.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the release, Starchuk noted the city is the \u201cagricultural powerhouse\u201d of Metro Vancouver. There are 9,275 hectares of agricultural land reserve\u201415 per cent of ALR in the Metro Vancouver area\u2014 in the city and it produces 22 per cent of the region\u2019s \u201cgross farm receipts.\u201d The release also claims Surrey as home to B.C.\u2019s largest floriculture greenhouse and the working backbone of poultry, dairy, berry, and vegetable producers.<\/p>\n
Starchuk said his Imagine Surrey slate will protect the ALR by \u201cstopping speculative development on productive farmland, tightening enforcement, and restoring a real farm to table economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The release noted the Cloverdale Rodeo will get special events status and up to $250,000 in an annual marketing and growth grant. This will be separate from the existing city policing support and event funding from the province \u201cto grow it into a premier North American destination.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he\u2019ll also restore the Cloverdale Fairgrounds into a world-class, year-round destination with new investments in \u201cheritage, hospitality, and event programming\u201d all year.<\/p>\n
The \u201cBuy Surrey\u201d program they want to launch will be \u201ca local procurement priority,\u201d according to the release, with a \u201cSurrey farm directory, city-promoted farm visits and tours, and a red tape review so farmers can sell more of what they grow directly from their own property.\u201d<\/p>\n
And finally, Starchuk explained that Imagine Surrey will connect fresh local produce to food banks and back farmers markets that will both be included in \u201ccitywide food security strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSurrey families want a city that is proud of where it came from and ready for what\u2019s coming next,\u201d Starchuk added. \u201cThat means protecting our farmland, supporting our farmers, and treating the Cloverdale Rodeo like the world-class event it deserves to be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Imagine Surrey wants to turn Cloverdale Fairgrounds into \u2018world-class destination\u2019 Published 10:30 am Friday, May 15, 2026 Mike…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,163792,87674],"class_list":["post-672381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-lower-mainland","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672381","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=672381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}