SURREY First mayoral candidate and three-term city councillor Linda Hepner said Wednesday that she  hopes someone on Doug McCallum’s campaign team gives him a calendar and points out its now 2014, not 1993, the year he was first elected to city council.

“One look at the platform he released today and you can see it’s all about taking our city backwards,” noted Hepner. “About 100,000 people have moved into our city since Mr. McCallum was voted out of office by Surrey voters for mismanaging city hall. Our city has grown, but we’ve kept our taxes the lowest in the region, and Surrey has the lowest per capita spending. Meanwhile, we’ve added more pools, parks, rinks and rec centres than ever before, and we’ve done that while we’ve balanced our books and built cash reserves of almost $500 million.”

Hepner also questioned McCallum’s plan to strip three per cent out of the City’s budget.

“There he goes again, trying to move us backwards, when our city wants to go forward,” noted Hepner. “We’ve got the lowest per capita spending in the region, so where does he think he’s going to cut $12 million from the city’s budget? No more parks? No more rec centres? No more rinks? Maybe he’d like to take it out of the police budget, or he’d like to cancel our green city initiatives? Frankly, I think he’s simply pulled a number out of the air, and it shows, once again, just how disconnected he is from today’s Surrey.

“At the end of the day, we all have a decision to make on November 15: do we keep our city moving forward, or do we go backwards. That’s the biggest point of difference between Doug McCallum and me. I see Surrey with a great future, while he can’t wait to turn Surrey around and head back to 1993.”