City of Surrey, Translink about to violate Local Elections Campaign Financing Act: Doug McCallum

Doug McCallum

SAFE Surrey Coalition’s mayoral candidate Doug McCallum and Council candidate Bableen Rana on Thursday said they were “gravely concerned that the City of Surrey and Translink are about to violate British Columbia’s Local Elections Campaign Financing Act.”

They pointed out: “In an internal memo sent to Surrey City council from their General Manager of Engineering, an “LRT communications plan” is laid out for September and October. It says the goal is to “earn and maintain support for the project with proactive, early, broad, regular and high-visible communications.””

McCallum and Rana are calling for that LRT Communications Plan to be released to them immediately. “There should be a proper and thorough review BEFORE any tax dollars are wasted,” they demanded, noting, “The SkyTrain versus LRT debate is at the heart of this election.”

Bableen Rana

They added: “It is not clear that the author of the communication strategy was even aware of British Columbia’s Local Elections Campaign Financing Act. It is also not clear that the act was even considered. The City of Surrey and / or Translink will have to register as Third Party Advertisers.
“Imagine this: the City of Surrey as a registered Third Party advertiser to promote the platform of the party currently in power. Their other option is don’t spend a penny – or any staff time.
“The preservation of impartiality of staff is in question here and the perceived interference by City and Translink raises serious concerns regarding bias and interference in the election.”

1 COMMENT

  1. “Street-car Madness” rife at Surrey city hall!!

    ……. In late July-2018, via a report to Surrey city council- Surrey and Translink- officials’ announced their ARBITRARY “plans” to impose 150 Kilometres of FAKE rapid-transit street-car (LRT) lines in Metro Vancouver’s South Of Fraser cities:
    https://www.surrey.ca/bylawsandcouncillibrary/CR_2018-R161.pdf (7-pages)….

    Plainly, these same officials- some of them candidates for election to Surrey city council- are behind the abrupt, recent scheduling of BOGUS “public consultations” to occur during September 2018:
    https://surreylightrail.ca/Community

    These “public consultations” will function as free advertisements and free public-promotions) for Surrey First political party’s pet project: building street-car (LRT) lines in SOF cities…

    The above linked-to web page announces that the city of Surrey is hosting 3 LRT project “public consultation events”- September 10, 19 and 22-2018…

    It states (in part):

    “Public and stakeholder engagement is a key component of the LRT Project. We value your input**, so we frequently** engage in stakeholder and public consultation to find out what you think.

    “To mark another milestone for the Surrey-Newton-Guildford LRT Project, please join us at (the following) upcoming community events…”

    ** NEVER have legitimately consulted the public before now… And, for over 3-years, Surrey/ Translink officials have opposed and deliberately prevented legitimate public consultations from taking place…

    The sham “public consultations” planned for September 10, 19 and 22, plainly, are a corrupt electioneering stunt- by mayoral candidate Tom Gill and his Surrey First council member colleagues- disguised as a “city of Surrey initiative”…
    ——————————-

    Complaints should be filed with Elections BC about tax-payers’ monies being used for the above events…

    Why??

    Because these events can only act- as a “campaign megaphone” for candidates from the governing Surrey First party, and consequently- will unfairly and inappropriately “advertise and promote” Surrey First candidates for election to Surrey city council-

    …. as Surrey First candidates are campaigning on a platform that promotes LRT (street-car) lines throughout the South of Fraser sub-region, whereas almost all the other civic parties (Elector Organizations) running in Surrey are opposed to LRT/street-car lines in SOF cities, and are FOR legitimate (computer-driven, separated-from-roadway) rapid transit lines instead…

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