Surrey mayor insists council isn't fractured after split vote on budget

Surrey mayor Doug McCallum says council isn't fractured, even after a split vote that passed a controversial budget on Monday night.

Surrey city council passed its operating budget in a 5-4 vote on Monday night, amid protests from members of the community. It was formally approved on Wednesday.

Under the new budget, the construction of an ice rink in Cloverdale will be delayed, and the hiring of Surrey RCMP officers will be put on hold until next year — two issues that have divided Surrey.

"When we put the team together we wanted to make sure they were independent and independent thinkers, and I think it's always important to the public to have differences in opinion as we move forward in the city," said McCallum, speaking with reporters for the first time since Monday's vote.

"I am really excited right now that we passed this budget and it has every one of our commitments that we promised the people in Surrey in the last election."

Transition to police force

Among McCallum's election promises was replacing Surrey RCMP with a municipal police force, which he says could be up and running by the beginning of 2021.

Critics of the budget tightening have accused the mayor of bringing in a capital spending freeze to free up funds to create that new force.

McCallum said putting a freeze on hiring new officers wouldn't affect the city's safety.

"Under the contract the RCMP has with the city, if we were to have or hire more officers in the city, they have up to a year to bring them into Surrey and in past experience, it usually has taken them up to a year to bring in new officers," he said.

"And by that time, which is a year from now, we'll be well into our transition period, so I feel very comfortable and the majority of council feel comfortable that the RCMP will certainly continue to make Surrey safe."

McCallum also addressed the contentious issue of Cloverdale Sport & Ice Complex, whose construction will now be delayed, though land for the new arena has already been approved and set aside.

Cloverdale's existing arena is in an aging building and has only one sheet of ice, and parents often have to drive their children to arenas in other municipalities when the space is in use.

"We look at this budget for all the people of Surrey, not just Cloverdale. There are four or five other ice hockey associations, some bigger than Cloverdale, and we haven't received any opposition from them in the budget,"  said McCallum.

"We have other parts of our city that we have to look at."

With files from Jesse Johnston