In an 11-minute speech streamed on Surrey\u2019s website<\/a>, McCallum repeated many of the promises that got him elected Oct. 17, and also made some new promises. <\/p>\nSafe Surrey Coalition vows to bring a new hospital and SkyTrain to Newton, wage war on illegal dumping, no property tax increases for four years, finance a Surrey Police helicopter and drone fleet, and withdraw Surrey from the Metro Vancouver Regional District, among other promises.<\/p>\n
Monday in council chambers, McCallum touted Surrey as an emerging economic powerhouse where major projects will get done and employers are welcomed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are going to lead in manufacturing, in science, in innovation with the kind of good-paying jobs that let our young people build a career and raise a family in the city they grew up in,\u201d the mayor insisted. <\/p>\n
At its first official meeting (on Nov. 9), McCallum said, \u201cthis council will pass the motion to freeze property taxes at zero per cent for four years. We will pass the motion to move forward with the building of the new women\u2019s and children\u2019s hospital in Newton. And we will pass the motion to move forward with the SkyTrain extension down King George Boulevard to Newton. At the same meeting, we will bring in zero-tolerance for illegal dumping with real penalties for the people who treat our neighbourhoods like a landfill.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd for the first time in a long time,\u201d McCallum added, \u201cSurrey will not be doing this alone,\u201d referring to the majority Conservative government in Victoria and congratulating Premier-designate Lorne Doerkson and MLAs elected Oct. 24.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Doerkson) has made a commitment to a new women\u2019s and children\u2019s hospital in Surrey and SkyTrain to Newton. So have I. The land is in Newton, the city owns it and our approvals will be fast-tracked.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCallum is mayor again after serving from 2018 to 2022, when he was defeated by Brenda Locke. McCallum also served three consecutive terms as mayor from 1996 to 2005.<\/p>\n
Returning to Surrey council from the 2022-2026 term are Harry Bains, Doug Elford and Mandeep Singh Nagra, while Allison Patton and Laurie Guerra are back after four-year absences. Council newcomers are Meera Gill, Suhana Gill and Cheney Cloke.<\/p>\n
Some other quotes from McCallum during his campaign-style speech Monday:<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cPeople who built Surrey, they get up early. They work hard, they pay their taxes, and they do not ask for much. They ask for a city hall that is on their side. For four years, it was not. Taxes went up 30 per cent. Nothing got built. Permits sat on desks for a year while families paid rent on empty storefronts. Good projects and good jobs went somewhere else because in Surrey, the answer was always, \u2018maybe, later, or no.\u2019 That ends today. This city hall is on your side. It is open for business.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cLet me speak directly to every employer, every homebuilder, and every company in Canada and around the world that wants to grow, create good-paying jobs and be a partner in building this. Come to Surrey. Surrey\u2019s about to become the largest city in British Columbia. We have the land. We have the workforce. We have a million people on the way, and every one of them needs a job, a home, a doctor, and a place to take their kids on Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cWhen you bring a major project to this city, one that creates good-paying jobs for Surrey residents, the question is at this city hall, it\u2019s not whether we want it, we want it. The question is not yes or no, the answer is yes. The only question we\u2019re going to ask you is this: What is the fastest path to get in shovels in the ground and Surrey residents on the payroll? Under this administration, permits will be answered in 60 days. If city hall misses that deadline, your fees are waived. That is how you get the local economy going \u2014 not with a study, with a signature.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cHere is my promise to the working people of this city: Every major project that comes to Surrey will be built by Surrey workers and will employ Surrey residents. The new Women and Children\u2019s Hospital, we are going to build in Newton. We\u2019ll put thousands of people to work, building it and thousands more to work inside it. SkyTrain down King George Boulevard to Newton will be built by the trades who live along it. The pools and community centres we build in Newton, City Centre, Clayton Heights and Cloverdale will be built by the people whose kids will swim in them. Employers do not come to our city to sit still. They come to build things and hire people. And when they build things and Surrey, the good-paying jobs in the paycheques stay in Surrey.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cA city that leads in science and innovation needs a university. So I will work with UBC to get a Surrey campus built and open right here, so that our young people can get a world-class education without leaving home, and so that the employers who come here find the talent they need waiting for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cWe will create a commission on government efficiency, reporting within 100 days on where every dollar of your money goes. And within six months, the promise I made to the residents of Ocean Park, Crescent Beach, Rosemary Heights, Fraser Heights, and Cloverdale, will be in motion. Because the promise I made at your doorstep is a promise kept in this chamber.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cWhile growing this economy, we are going to leave your money where it belongs in your pocket. Property taxes will be frozen at zero per cent for four years \u2014 not one per cent, not two, zero. Because when a family is choosing between its grocery bill and the hydro bill, City Hall should not be the one adding a third bill to that pile. One of my first acts as mayor will be to have an independent forensic audit of the city\u2019s land deals, with the findings made public. The people of this city paid for those deals. They are going to find out what they paid for.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cYour taxes are frozen, your community projects get built, your jobs stay here. And to every employer and every partner who wants to build something in Surrey and hire Surrey people to do it, the answer is yes. Bring your plans, bring your jobs, bring your shovels. Surrey\u2019s best days are still ahead of all of us, and we will get there together. Thank you for the honour of serving you. Go Surrey!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 40-minute ceremony ushered in a new era of Surrey city council on Monday evening, Nov. 2. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":957153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":["post-957152","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\/957152","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=957152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/957153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=957152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=957152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=957152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}