Surrey, B.C. (July 7, 2026): After just four years as mayor, Brenda Locke has earned a rare distinction: she is Surrey’s first-ever million dollar mayor, taking home $1,038,000 in combined salary, expenses, benefits, allowances and meeting fees from the City of Surrey, Metro Vancouver, and the TransLink Mayors’ Council.
Surrey First councillor and candidate for mayor, Linda Annis has pledged not to take additional income or fees from regional organizations if she is elected mayor in October and wants to abolish the practice altogether.
“When you are elected mayor, you know what the salary is, and the meetings you attend as mayor at Metro, the Mayors’ Council or any other regional body, are part of the job and should not come with additional fees,” said Annis. “Taxpayers have had enough, and if I am elected I will not take any additional fees and will work to end these meeting payments completely. If Metro Vancouver stopped paying mayors and councillors on their board, it would save $5 million over the course of a four-year term.”
Annis said she was surprised to see Locke criticize Metro Vancouver in recent weeks, and call for changes after being on their board for four years and collecting more than $100,000 in meeting fees, including $577 for a recent meeting that lasted less than four minutes.
“Brenda Locke has been part of every bad decision Metro has made in the past four years, including the North Shore Wastewater Treatment project which is $3 billion over budget,” added Annis. “Now that we’re heading towards an election and voters and taxpayers have had enough of Metro’s incompetence, Mayor Locke wants Surrey voters to believe she is all about change. The fact is, she has had four years to make changes, and did nothing to protect Surrey’s taxpayers, all while collecting fees to attend meetings.”
Annis said payments from Metro Vancouver, the Mayors’ Council, and other regional bodies mean more and more mayors across the region are being paid more than the premier of the province.
“Paying meeting fees to board members has to go, and Metro Vancouver needs to get back to basics, namely water and sewer,” noted Annis. “The 41-member board needs to be reduced in size, and Metro Vancouver should look and feel like a utility rather than another expensive layer of government.”