Surrey mayoral hopeful eyes waterfront district, stadium, Commonwealth Games bid | Daily Hive

Surrey mayoral candidate pitches waterfront district, cricket and rugby stadium, and Commonwealth Games bid

Opening Ceremony of the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games. (Commonwealth Sport)

Surrey mayoral candidate Mike Starchuk is proposing a new Fraser River waterfront destination and a cricket and rugby stadium as part of a push to bring major international sporting events to the city.

Starchuk’s Imagine Surrey party outlined the major proposals in two announcements last week, ahead of the civic election on Oct. 17, 2026. The plans connect new public spaces and sports facilities with ambitions to host the World Police and Fire Games, followed by the Commonwealth Games.

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A mirror image of Downtown New Westminster on Surrey’s Fraser River waterfront?

The proposed “Surrey Waterfront District” would be located along the Fraser River in Brownsville and South Westminster, near the new stal̕əw̓asəm/Riverview Bridge and SkyTrain’s Scott Road Station.

Imagine Surrey is pitching this waterfront neighbourhood as a destination to rival Downtown New Westminster’s Quay and North Vancouver’s Shipyards, with more opportunities for local residents and visitors to spend time beside the river.

Plans include a public quay and riverside walking route, a market hall, an outdoor amphitheatre, housing, community amenities, and a centre for technology and employment.

The party proposes building this district in stages, beginning with the quay and riverwalk, followed by the market and amphitheatre. Housing and community amenities would be incorporated throughout the development.

The party also envisions a prominent Surrey landmark visible to people crossing the river by SkyTrain.

Fraser Surrey Docks Fraser River waterfront

Fraser Surrey Docks along the Fraser River in North Surrey. (DP World Fraser Surrey)

surrey waterfront entertainment district fraser river

Study area for Surrey’s new waterfront entertainment district around the Pattullo Bridge. (City of Surrey)

south westminster fraser river waterfront surrey 2026

2026 highly preliminary concept of Surrey’s South Westminster Fraser River waterfront. (City of Surrey)

Imagine Surrey takes issue that while the city has 20 km of Fraser River shoreline, there is limited public access.

“I live in Surrey Centre, 10 minutes from a river most of my neighbours have never stood beside,” said Narima Dela Cruz, a Surrey City Council under Imagine Surrey, in a statement.

“A quay, a market, and somewhere to bring your family on a Sunday. That is what a city centre with a waterfront does.”

In 2025, Surrey City Council also approved a feasibility study for a mixed-use entertainment district in the same waterfront area. The site had previously been considered as a potential new home for the PNE in the early 2000s, although that relocation plan was ultimately abandoned by the provincial government.

Initiating a bid for the Commonwealth Games

The party’s waterfront district proposal also includes a future “Commonwealth Village,” linked to Imagine Surrey’s ambition to help initiate a bid for either the 2034 or 2038 Commonwealth Games.

The Commonwealth Games is one of the world’s largest multi-sport events, comparable to the Pan American Games — which Canada last hosted in Toronto in 2015 — or a smaller version of the Summer Olympics. It brings together athletes representing countries and territories across the British Commonwealth, with each edition of the Games opened by the British monarch.

This past summer, Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland, held the 2026 Commonwealth Games in a significantly downsized format, after the Australian state government of Victoria withdrew Melbourne from its hosting duties in 2023 due to escalating costs reaching up to AUS$7 billion (C$6.9 billion). Later in 2024, Glasgow was confirmed as the replacement host city, with a considerably smaller event and very minimal construction due to the considerably shorter lead time to organize the event.

After Melbourne’s withdrawal, local business leaders in British Columbia’s capital of Victoria advocated for a bid to be the replacement host of the 2026 Commonwealth Games. However, Premier David Eby’s BC NDP-led provincial government rejected that proposal, partly due to the focus on hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Vancouver during the same summer.

The Government of Alberta also withdrew its support in 2023 for a joint Calgary-Edmonton bid to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games.

Opening Ceremony of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India. (Commonwealth Sport)

In the late 2010s, there were also some discussions behind the scenes about a potential Commonwealth Games bid involving the broader Metro Vancouver region, rather than Surrey alone. Given their immense scale and complexity, the Commonwealth Games and similar major multi-sport events typically involve a regional effort, with multiple municipalities sharing venues and responsibilities. It also requires significant support from the provincial and federal governments.

That later pivoted into an attempt by local municipal officials and the Canadian Olympic Committee to consider a Vancouver bid for the 2030 Winter Olympics. However, that bid was also rejected by Premier Eby.

Canada last hosted the Commonwealth Games in 1994, when Victoria staged the event under a smaller format. Previous Canadian hosts include Edmonton in 1978, Vancouver in 1954, and Hamilton, which hosted the inaugural Commonwealth Games (originally known as the British Empire Games) in 1930.

Prior to the 2026 edition, the last regular-sized Commonwealth Games in 2022 were held in Birmingham, England, with 283 events held across 20 sports, and involving over 4,800 athletes from 72 Commonwealth nations.

Victoria 1994 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony

Queen Elizabeth II opened the Commonwealth Games of Victoria, held over 10 days in August 1994. The Opening Ceremony was held at the University of Victoria campus. (University of Victoria)

Building a stadium for cricket/rugby in Fleetwood, and bidding for the World Police and Fire Games

Similar to the Summer Olympics, a large main stadium is required for the Commonwealth Games, with recent precedents — apart from Glasgow 2026 — being venues of 40,000 seats or more.

The municipal government-led project of building a 10,000-seat indoor arena in Surrey City Centre would also add to Metro Vancouver’s sports-hosting capabilities. Preliminary construction and site preparation work on the arena project began earlier this month, and it is set to reach completion in 2030, at which point it will become the new home of the WHL’s Vancouver Giants.

In the Fleetwood area, Imagine Surrey is promising to build a new outdoor stadium for cricket and rugby — possibly also serving as the main stadium — on land the City of Surrey already owns. The party says the site would be within walking distance of a new station on the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain extension of the Expo Line, which will reach completion in 2029. They did not identify a specific site or a potential seating capacity.

A stadium capable of hosting not only the Commonwealth Games’ opening and closing ceremonies but also international cricket would require a considerable land in Fleetwood, given the enormous size of the playing field alone for cricket.

The 48,000-seat Sydney Cricket Ground. (Kenneth Chan)

The first step in the party’s sporting-event ambitions would be a bid for the 2031 World Police and Fire Games, which were previously held twice in Vancouver in 1989 and 2009. The multi-sport event involves the participation of active and retired law enforcement and fire service personnel around the world, and it is similar in scale to the Invictus Games, which were held in Vancouver and Whistler in 2025.

“I spent 32 years with the people these Games are for. Firefighters and police officers from 70 countries will come to Surrey, compete, and go home telling people what this city is,” said Starchuk.

Starchuk was a longtime firefighter, serving 32 years with Surrey Fire Services and retiring in 2024 as the City’s chief fire prevention officer. He first entered municipal office in 2014, when he was elected as a city councillor under the Surrey First party. He lost his seat in City Council in the 2018 civic election. He was subsequently elected in 2020 as the MLA for the riding of Surrey-Cloverdale under the BC NDP, but lost the seat in the 2024 provincial general election.

“Hosting the world is how we can put Surrey on the global map,” he added.

However, getting Surrey into the running for the 2031 World Police and Fire Games would require real action very soon — after the civic election.

The federation for the World Police and Fire Games has set Oct. 31, 2026 as the deadline for a letter of intent, questionnaire, and initial bid fee. That is two weeks after the civic election day, with the federation intending to award the host city in October 2027.

Starchuk is asking the current/outgoing City Council to submit the letter. If it does not, he says an Imagine Surrey-led City Council would ask the federation for additional time during its first week in office. If that cannot be arranged, the party, if elected, would instead pursue the 2033 World Police and Fire Games.

As for the 2034 Commonwealth Games, there is already some potential bid interest from New Zealand and African nations.

Imagine Surrey is running a full slate of eight candidates for City Council. In addition to Dela Cruz, other candidates under the party’s banner entail Yousef Aldabainah-Barakat, Chandan Chahal, Perminder Chohan, Ashiyana Hanif, William Li, Margaret Mubanda, and Kevin Wilkie.

June 2026 preliminary conceptual artistic renderings of the Surrey City Centre Arena and Cultural Event Centre, a mixed-use redevelopment at 10355 King George Blvd. with a new 10,000-seat arena for the new home of the Vancouver Giants. (City of Surrey)

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