Former Surrey mayor Doug McCallum promises to withdraw from Metro Vancouver if re-elected

We are now less than three months away from this fall’s municipal election, and a Surrey mayoral candidate is making some bold promises.

Today, mayoral candidate Doug McCallum, who was previously Surrey’s mayor before he was defeated by Brenda Locke in 2022, is taking another mayoral run this year with the Safe Surrey Coalition. Today, he announced a number of new campaign promises.

His promises include a plan to make food in Surrey more affordable, conduct a forensic audit of City Hall’s land deals, and speed up permitting and cut fees for small businesses.

He also said that he will pull Surrey out of the Metro Vancouver Regional District (MVRD).

“No studies. No task force. We are getting out,” said McCallum, in a release. “Metro Vancouver is a huge, sprawling bureaucracy that taxes Surrey families and answers to nobody. It is out of control, it is ineffective, and Surrey gets nothing from it but the bill.”

However, he noted that Surrey would stay connected for the core utility services of water, sewer, and waste.

“Everything else ends. Surrey is big enough to run its own affairs. We will keep our money in Surrey, spend it on Surrey, and answer to the people of Surrey. Nobody else.”

Politicians, media, and the general public have all scrunitzed Metro Vancouver in recent years, especially for its handling of the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant, whose costs ballooned from an initial $700 million to a whopping $3.9 billion.

It has also been a trend in Surrey politics to go rogue from the 22 other member authorities in the MVRD. In 2025, the current Surrey city council announced that it would remove its municipal jurisdiction from the MVRD’s masterplan about how the region will grow over the next three decades. In April of this year, the City of Surrey also filed a petition in the Supreme Court of British Columbia, looking to invalidate “Invest Vancouver.”

And just a few weeks ago, Surrey refused to comply with Metro Vancouver’s stage 3 water restrictions.

McCallum’s other promises

McCallum said he would improve Surrey’s food affordability plan by protecting local farmland from development, “so the land that feeds Surrey keeps feeding Surrey,” fast-tracking rezoning applications for greenhouses and agri-manufacturing, letting farmers sell directly to residents.

“Every dollar between the farmer and your fridge goes to a middleman. Cut the middleman, and food becomes more affordable. It is that simple,” claimed McCallum. “This is what a global city does. It grows its own food and sells it to its own people.”

The release also states that one of his first acts as Mayor would be to “bring in an independent forensic auditor to examine the City’s recent land transactions, and to root out waste, abuse, and fraud across City Hall.”

Further, McCallum claims that residential building permits would be approved within 60 days and that they will waive business licence fees for the first two years of every new business.

Confirms full slate of Safe Surrey Coalition candidates

McCallum introduced the full slate of council candidates for the Safe Surrey Coalition for the upcoming election, which includes former councillors Laurie Guerra and Allison Patton, public administration worker Suhana Gill, community leader Meera Gill, and former Surrey Now-Leader editor Beau Simpson. This is alongside Mandeep Nagra and Doug Elford, whose candidacies were announced in April.

“The Safe Surrey Coalition is exactly what its name says. Independents, coming together around one core platform, to achieve results for Surrey,” said McCallum. “Experienced councillors, community builders, a small business owner, a journalist who spent 15 years holding City Hall accountable, and the next generation of Surrey leadership. Every community in this city will see itself in this coalition.”

Other Surrey mayoral candidates include the current mayor Brenda Locke, Troy Van Vliet, and current Surrey City Councillor Linda Annis.

The municipal election will be held on Oct. 17.

With files from Kenneth Chan

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