I’ll continue to be transparent about the mayor’s financial failings and her lack of respect for taxpayers: Linda Annis
Surrey, B.C. (July 14, 2026): Surrey First councillor and candidate for mayor Linda Annis says she will continue challenging Brenda Locke’s financial mismanagement of city tax dollars, in spite of Locke’s criticism at last night’s city council meeting.
“Mayor Locke hates financial transparency and when she gets called out about her lack of financial common sense, she wants to point the finger at everyone but herself,” said Annis. “Under Brenda Locke, the police transition is in year eight and she cut the police budget by $47 million, just when we needed our police the most. She spends $35,000 on each of her ‘big’ signs at city projects which are less about public information and more about election politics. She has cost homeowners an average of $1500 more in taxes during her term. Her legal and public relations fight with the provincial government over the police transition cost us $2 million, and her board’s politically motivated firing of the chief means taxpayers are on the hook for a severance that will cost at least $500,000.
“Meanwhile, the Newton Recreation Centre is not an inch closer to being built after she literally moved it across the street even though the city spent millions on site prep at the original location. And her proposed 10,000-seat arena puts taxpayers on the hook for the whole thing because there isn’t a developer or private sector business willing to step up and take it on. Now it turns out the mayor’s famous arena land swap is a scandal costing taxpayers because she swapped valuable light industrial land and a fully leased shopping mall for land that was valued at less than the city properties. And this short list of financial failures by the mayor is just the tip of the costly financial iceberg representing Brenda Locke’s time as mayor.”
Annis said she will continue to shed light on Locke’s cost to taxpayers.
“As we head to the October election, we can expect Mayor Locke to react, but the facts are clear. She has been a financial burden and four years of Brenda Locke is more than enough,” added Annis. “I have called for an auditor general multiple times, and every time I suggest it, the mayor turns it down because having independent eyes on our city’s finances and decisions by the mayor makes her nervous.”
Annis has called for a complete core review of every city expenditure and program, and she has committed to no residential or property tax increase in 2027.