Incumbent Doug McCallum absent from Surrey, B.C. mayoral debate despite bold tax promise

Surrey’s incumbent mayoral candidate Doug McCallum has promised a massive 60,000 stadium in Fleetwood and a full indoor swimming pool in Whalley, and now he has proposed a freeze on property tax hikes at 2.9 per cent.

McCallum and his Safe Surrey Coalition claim these projects will get done without a burden on Surrey taxpayers and without service cuts.

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“We have looked at budgets and done them and we came to a conclusion. We did it for the last four years,” McCallum told Global News.

“In fact, we will be looking at adding more firemen and also more policemen. For money for infrastructure, we’ve been working with the province and the federal government to get money for most of this infrastructure.”

However, McCallum’s critics are not convinced regarding his promises.

Rival candidate for mayor Brenda Locke called it “cheap electioneering.”

“There will be services cut in this city and we are already bare bones, so what (is McCallum planning on) cutting? Because there is no way you could possibly do a 2.9 per cent increase,” Locke said.

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In 2021, the promise of a 2.9 per cent tax increase was met by McCallum and his majority on council but homeowners were still charged an extra $200 each on a ‘capital parcel tax’ that tripled from previous years.

In this new promise, it is not clear how the capital parcel tax bill will factor into the equation.

“We want to give relief to residents, so we looked at budgets and we have done next year’s budget already with staff and we want to provide that relief,” McCallum said.

Hours after announcing the contentious promise, McCallum was absent from a Surrey Board of Trade mayoral debate, on Wednesday night.

A statement from his campaign said had prior commitments but according to the Surrey Board of Trade, neither McCallum nor his team bothered to respond to their invite.

“Really disappointed he didn’t show up. When you are a politician, you have to have the courage to be able to respond to tough questions even if you disagree,” said Anita Huberman, the Surrey Board of Trade’s president.

“I had hoped he was courageous enough.”

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