Surrey Connect Leader Brenda Locke releases costed platform — with tax increases

With two weeks until the municipal election, Surrey Connect Leader Brenda Locke announced her fully costed platform on Thursday, proposing $1.5 billion in new capital projects, including a new firehall, concert hall and green spaces.

In order to build these, Locke said the city would increase property taxes, but she promised to keep them “low.”

Locke, who is the incumbent mayor, was primarily a one-issue candidate in the 2022 election, promising to end the transition from the RCMP to a municipal force, which was unsuccessful due to the province imposing it on the city. Now with the transition nearly complete, the incumbent mayor has pivoted to other priorities.

Locke’s promises include a new $150 million performing arts and cultural venue, a $350 million public safety campus that would house public safety services and emergency preparedness staff, and $211.5 million in new parks and sport fields, park upgrades and tree planting.

“We’re announcing this platform with the Surrey firefighters because public safety is front-of-mind for our Surrey Connect team, and that is why we hired 80 new firefighters over the last four years. That is why we funded 140 new police officers last year alone, and that is why our platform funds facilities, technology and more public safety personnel,” Locke said Thursday morning at the Surrey Firefighters Association union hall.

The proposed capital projects Locke announced Thursday are on top of the 10,000-seat entertainment arena underway in City Centre and medical clinics Locke has been opening in city-owned buildings.

The current mayor said she will deliver her promises by doing something other candidates say they won’t — increase property taxes in the city.

“While other parties are promising massive capital investments with the promise of no tax increases, Surrey Connect is making the investments our city needs while keeping taxes low,” the party states in its platform.

Locke said if re-elected she will keep tax increases at or below the rate of inflation.

“We’ve seen what no tax increases often mean in practice: service cuts, delayed or cancelled projects and hidden costs shifted onto residents in other ways. Surrey Connect will make the investments that our city needs while keeping taxes low and transparent,” said Harry Bains, incumbent councillor and candidate seeking re-election.

Locke’s rivals for mayor in the upcoming election have made zero property tax increases part of their platforms. Doug McCallum, the former mayor, has said he will not increase taxes for his full term, while Linda Annis has promised a zero property tax increase in 2027.

Other pieces in Locke’s platform include non-capital investments, such as offering the province a piece of city land for it to build another hospital in Surrey.

“Surrey Connect will offer the provincial government with a suitable piece of city land for a women’s and children’s hospital in Surrey. Because the province, not the city, has the mandate to resource and build hospitals, and we are ready to partner with them constructively,” Locke said.