Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke says this city should have its own charter, like Vancouver, “and that has to change.”
“A charter would give Surrey more flexibility, more autonomy and the ability to respond to local needs more quickly. Things like housing and infrastructure and economic development will all benefit,” she said. “That is why I will continue to push the Province for a Surrey charter.”
Locke delivered her 2026 State of the City Address – this one during an election year – during a luncheon Thursday, May 14, at the Sheraton Vancouver Guildford Hotel.
“As I often say, lead, follow or get out of our way, and Surrey is leading and we’re going to keep leading,” she told the crowd.
She offered up a catalogue of major capital projects including a large entertainment district downtown, a 200,000-square-foot convention centre for Cloverdale, a new three-sheet ice arena in South Surrey, the SFU school of medicine, and a new Newton Community Centre “that will be the largest community facility investment in Surrey’s history.”
“There is still nothing more important to me than keeping you safe,” she said. “I have four big public safety announcements for your today.”
These include hiring over five years 560 more police officers, firefighters, community safety officers and bylaw enforcement officer emergency preparedness staff, engineering response support and community safety coordinators.
“This is significant commitment,” she said to applause. She also said city hall will invest in a new 15-acre public safety campus in Anniedale-Tynehead to support training for police and other emergencies personnel. “It gives Surrey the space and the structure for Surrey to plan for the next generation of public safety service.”
Third, the city will build “collaborative” public safety facilities for police and firefighters in downtown, South Surrey and Cloverdale “because a city approaching one million people cannot rely on the old infrastructure, scattered facilities, outdated models,” she said. “We must build for the city we are becoming.”
Fourth, she said, is modernizing how public safety is delivered, including “building upon the current use of AI-enabled drone technology. This is not about chasing gadgets, it’s about faster information, safer deployment, better decisions and giving frontline teams the tools they need in a city that is growing so very quickly.”
On the matter of affordability, Locke noted city hall has kept the property tax increase to 2.6 per cent, “amongst the lowest in the entire region,” and “runs a “very tight ship.”
“We do a lot with a little,” she said. “There is only one municipality that is leaner than Surrey. Does anybody have an idea who that is? Well, it’s Bowen Island.”
Vancouver city hall, she said, has roughly twice the level of staffing Surrey does.
“We do not have the luxury of being slow, building bureaucracy with every problem,” Locke said. “Families are being squeezed from every direction and the last thing they need is a city hall that forgets who pays their bills.”
Meantime, the newly formed Imagine Surrey was quick to issue a press lease referring the Locke’s address as “big speech, small vision.”
Mike Starchuk, the slate’s mayoral candidate, said Locke “gave a long speech” saying ’big things are happening’ but families in this city “look around and don’t see what those things are.”
Safe Surrey Coalition’s mayoral candidate Doug McCallum, former mayor defeated by Locke in the last election, says her speech “was not a vision. It was a confession.
“Brenda Locke told Surrey today to lead, follow, or get out of the way. Surrey has been following her for four years. We have been led into the worst public safety crisis in our city’s history,” McCallum said. “We have been led into a 25 per cent tax hike. We have been led by a mayor who blames Ottawa for every problem she created. It is time for Brenda Locke to get out of the way.”