Let’s be clear, consulting and dictating are antonyms, not synonyms.
Surrey’s Mayor Doug McCallum would have you believe he made good on consulting the electorate during his election campaign about his policing plan to retire the RCMP in favour of setting up a city force.
Point in fact, when one is running for office they are essentially making a sales pitch, not consulting.
He’s still selling. We just don’t know what’s under the hood, and we should.
No one can reasonably argue McCallum hid his intentions to swap out the RCMP. This was front and centre in his campaign. What he does seem to be missing, however, is that people want to see the details of this plan – the nuts and the bolts, nitty gritty, the fine print, whatever you want to call it.
READ ALSO: Surrey mayor insists public was consulted on policing – during election campaign
READ ALSO OUR VIEW: Make Surrey’s policing plan public
These details have not been made available to not only Surrey residents, as McCallum’s own Safe Surrey Coalition running mates also profess to be in the dark. Councillor Jack Hundial, who served with the RCMP for 25 years, says the public should have a say on the plan prior to it being finalized and sent off to the provincial government for approval.
Hundial can’t uncork that bottle himself, because he doesn’t know what’s inside. Lone Surrey First Councillor Linda Annis is also calling on McCallum to “put the facts” to Surreyites before sending the plan to Victoria.
Why is Surrey’s mayor holding his cards so close to his chest? His peculiar that’s classified, need-to-know approach on this file invites skepticism.
It also flies in the face of comments he made to the Now- Leader, published on Sept. 19, 2018, during his election campaign, concerning what he considered to be TransLink’s deficit in public consultation.
To wit, “But real consulting is going out there and asking the people what type of system do you want. Not saying, ‘This is what we’re building. What do you think?”
What do we think?
Back at you, your worship.
That’s what we think.
– Now-Leader
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