The Editor,
Re: “Surrey council OKs budget despite deemed ‘risk’ to public safety,” the Now-Leader, Dec. 4.
Surrey’s mayor and his doting councillors are out of control.
Fifty-nine per cent of residents who voted cast their ballot for a different mayoral candidate. Doug McCallum seems to think that 41 per cent of the votes gives him a mandate to do whatever he wants and that somehow 41 per cent is larger than 59 per cent.
McCallum is not listening to the majority of residents who did not support his plan to replace the RCMP. The only thing we have left to stop this madness of blaming the RCMP while not increasing members (nor fire personnel) is to hope the provincial government will listen to the people of Surrey.
SEE ALSO: ‘A disaster’: Surrey council OKs budget despite deemed ‘risk’ to public safety
It’s clear this mayor and councilors refuse to listen, judging from the way they quickly approved the budget Monday. All of those people who made time in the afternoon to speak were completely disrespected by not considering their input. All of the people who have emailed or phoned in comments were disrespected.
Where does the mayor get the idea that changing to a municipal force will somehow be safer? Based on what facts? He has not presented anything to support this change.
OUR VIEW: Surrey public’s budget input seems wasted
McCallum was quoted as saying, “The responsibility for the officers in the police and in the fire department rest entirely with the police chief and with the fire chief. When we have our own city police, which we’re going to get very quickly, the police chief determines how many officers he or she needs to make a city safe.”
This is unbelievable.
The mayor and council, through the budget they draft, determine if additional police and fire personnel will be hired and they have refused to hire anymore for the past two years. This is dereliction of duty to protect the public.
Do we have a recall mechanism available to us to remove this mayor and his councilors? I can’t find one and I’m sure we would get enough signatures.
Carl Markwart, Surrey
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