Surrey council hit rock bottom this evening, it’s completely dysfunctional: Councillor Linda Annis

Surrey, B.C. (May 30, 2022): Surrey First Councillor Linda Annis says city council has “hit rock bottom” and “division and dysfunction” have taken over. This after tonight’s council meeting was adjourned after only seven minutes amid safety concerns when the mayor, various councillors, and an agitated audience created a chaotic scene in the council chamber.

“Councillors were calling for the mayor to resign over his criminal charges, the mayor was having none of it, and the public audience’s contempt for Doug McCallum just boiled over,” said Annis. “As a result, city staff moved the mayor and all of the councillors to safer spaces and the meeting was adjourned to Wednesday. City council meetings under Doug McCallum have been bad for many months, but this is the worse I’ve seen. People are fed up, the mayor continues with his my-way-or-the-highway approach, and frankly it’s reached the boiling point. As a result, council under Doug McCallum has become quite dysfunctional. Respect, consensus, and simple good manners have gone out the window.”

Annis said she is disappointed in the mayor’s and public’s reaction to the calls for him to resign, but she is not surprised.

“People in Surrey are fed up, and the mayor is completely tone deaf when it comes to the community and how people are feeling,” added Annis. “That said, everyone at the meeting tonight, mayor, councillors and the community have to step back and see what this is doing to our meetings and to our city. There’s plenty of blame to go around on a night like this, but if Surrey residents were watching this tonight they would be shaking their heads and wondering how our city can run now until election day on October 15. It was an embarrassing night for our city and its taxpayers.”