United Surrey Mayoral candidate Sukh Dhaliwal commits to review all development approvals rubber stamped at Monday’s meeting.  Dhaliwal is calling out Mayor Doug McCallum’s latest example of cloak-and-dagger politics with Monday’s baffling City Council meeting. By once again choosing insider quid pro quo politics over accountability, ethics and impartiality by trying to rubber stamp 48 development applications a mere 12 days before the election.

By DESIBUZZCanada Staff

SURREY – United Surrey Mayoral candidate Sukh Dhaliwal is calling out Mayor Doug McCallum’s latest example of cloak-and-dagger politics with Monday’s baffling City Council meeting. By once again choosing insider quid pro quo politics over accountability, ethics and impartiality by trying to rubber stamp 48 development applications a mere 12 days before the election.

The longstanding tradition of cancelling all City Council meetings within the election writ period is being followed by every municipality in BC with the exception of Surrey, according to Dhaliwal.

“Doug McCallum is now taking care of his friends and political backers in the open with the scheduling of this meeting,” says Dhaliwal. “With the prospect of re-election now nearly impossible, McCallum is disallowing speakers and offering one last mass approval of developer projects for his insiders that have dominated City Hall for the past four years.”

A review of the proposed meeting agenda - https://www.surrey.ca/sites/default/files/media/documents/AGN_RCLU_Current_2.pdf

– shows a mix of development applications, zoning re-classifications and bylaw amendments all devoted to clearing the way for a range of development proposals. Further, the City of Surrey is mysteriously claiming to have received “No Public Hearing Correspondence (received up until noon on September 29, 2022),” seemingly indicating that not one resident or interested party has signed up to speak.

In the midst of an election campaign where such a meeting is entirely inappropriate, this is a claim that cannot be backed up by the facts. On the contrary, United Surrey has been contacted by several parties who did sign up to speak on several of these applications, only to be left off the agenda when published on the City of Surrey website.

If elected as Mayor with a majority caucus on City Council, Sukh Dhaliwal is committing to a detailed audit of all approvals made at tonight’s City Council meeting.

“The United Surrey Ethics and Accountability Governance Plan has already committed to a forensic audit of all development approvals - https://unitesurrey.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/2-1.jpeg - exactly because of this kind of behaviour,” explains Dhaliwal. “As Mayor, I will immediately review all development-related decisions made at Monday’s meeting because they deserve the light of comprehensive public scrutiny.”

With deep skepticism about the current Mayor’s concern with transparency and maintaining the public trust, United Surrey is imploring McCallum and his fellow incumbent electoral candidates to reconsider tonight’s meeting.