Failed mayoral candidates question McCallum’s $514M claim of Surrey debt
Posted November 27, 2018 1:39 pm.
Last Updated November 27, 2018 2:18 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
SURREY (NEWS 1130) – Two men who ran against Doug McCallum for mayor are questioning his motives, as he suggests Surrey’s debt could top half a billion dollars.
Former city councillors Tom Gill and Bruce Hayne are wondering if he’s having trouble finding money to pay for promises he made during the election campaign.
RELATED: Surrey’s debt casts uncertainty over SkyTrain plans, other capital projects
Gill is going as far as calling it a “ploy,” in case he’s forced to delay replacing the RCMP with a municipal force and extending SkyTrain farther into Surrey.
“There’s absolutely no question. I think this is a ploy by Doug McCallum to say that I can’t make good on my commitments … The City of Surrey residents have been hoodwinked by Doug McCallum.”
Gill believes McCallum’s big-ticket promises are at risk.
“I think any businessman making any decision needs to understand what kind of exposure you’re looking at. This council should have asked staff to come back with a report to give them some context to what those exposure levels could potentially be and what those impacts would have been to our property tax.”
READ MORE: City of Surrey 2017 financial report
Hayne says the city’s debt load is directly related to capital projects. “The city’s financial records today are posted on the website each and every year. I can’t imagine that there’s anything being discovered right now that hasn’t been a matter of public record for some time.”
He says the $514-million figure quoted by McCallum could simply reflect a change in capital funding priorities and “as a result, are sounding an alarm bell that there’s a lot of debt load in the city.”
“When the city builds new infrastructure — be it pools or ice rinks or recreation centres and so on — it takes on that capital debt and pays it back.”
READ MORE: Quarterly financial report — Third Quarter — 2018
McCallum says he’s “dismayed and shaken to the core” at the “spiraling” debt the city is facing. He calls the debt load “untenable” and “irresponsible.”
The mayor has already promised existing services and programs won’t be cut, but he says he’s not ready to comment again until a finance committee meeting on Dec. 11.
