Former Surrey mayor Doug McCallum laid out his three main pronged agenda which has crime at the top of his priority which includes Surrey getting it’s own police force, with the process of creating Surrey police, which if he wins, will start right away. “I’m so excited and ready to go,” McCallum told the LINK. “I’m in the best health, I’ve been exercising regularly and have lost 25 pounds so I’m ready to tackle Surrey’s many issues, at the top of which is crime and for this we need reality based solutions and not more studies.”
By R. Paul Dhillon – LINK Editor
SURREY – Former Surrey mayor Doug McCallum, aka “Doug Paaji” is back in the Surrey civic race, telling LINK Tuesday that he plans on fielding a full slate of young professional Council candidates as he seeks return to the mayor’s chair in Surrey which he held for many years.
“I’m so excited and ready to go,” McCallum told the LINK. “I’m in the best health, I’ve been exercising regularly and have lost 25 pounds so I’m ready to tackle Surrey’s many issues, at the top of which is crime and for this we need reality based solutions and not more studies.”
McCallum laid out his three main pronged agenda which has crime at the top of his priority which includes Surrey getting it’s own police force, with the process of creating Surrey police, which if he wins, will start right away.
“This Surrey council has done nothing to solve the crime issue, in fact they have let get further and further out of control but the clear solution is to begin with getting our own police force which is accountable to Surrey residents and answers to the City,” McCallum said.
Second on McCallum’s agenda is Transit – which if he is elected he will delay the current council’s LRT plans and go with the Skytrain Expo line which he says makes better sense for Surrey as he doesn’t want Surrey streets to become congested with the proposed light trains running along city streets.
The third big item on McCallum’s agenda is that he will do development differently than the current council, which passed development outside the OCP (Official Community Plan), allowing a number of greedy developers, many of them Indo-Canadian, who tried to hawk the yet fully passed land to unsuspecting buyers when Surrey City council approval in such an area means absolutely nothing. The final approval is given by the Provincial government and Regional land authority, which rejected the development projects passed by the Linda Hepner and Surrey First regime.
One of those projects have led to a shooting of a well known Indo-Canadian developer who survived the shooting but is now paralyzed. Such developments lead to greed and violence and will not be in favour under a McCallum run city hall.
“I want to concentrate on smart development in zoned areas where majority of the community is in agreement and we have an OCP in place so I will be encouraging such development and pausing the non-OCP developments as they are not in the Surrey community interest,” McCallum told the LINK.
“Also we have to recognize that development cannot take place where there is no infrastructure and in regards to these projects near 16th Avenue near the Agricultural land that was not part of the OCP – it doesn’t make sense to pass these developments and I’m surprised that current Surrey council did.”
Aside from these three essential issues facing Surrey, McCallum said his other priority will be to find land for a new Surrey hospital which he said is a must for a growing city.
Asked what his message to Surrey voters was, McCallum said he is ready to go and will be announcing his party name and full slate in a couple of weeks.
“I’ve decided to run because I feel there is some unfinished business in my home city and I want to solve the current problems and issues it faces,” McCallum said. “I’m excited and ready to deliver for Surrey.”
