Surrey’s seniors built this city. It’s time to give them a break.
By Dr. Margaret K. Mubanda
I’m a grandmother. I spent 21 years as a social worker with the Ministry of Children and Family Development, and for 15 of those years my husband and I were also foster parents. I know what it costs a city when people get isolated.
If you’re a senior in South Surrey or Bridgeview, you know the math. Your pension moved a little. Your rent, your strata fee, or your property tax moved a lot. The aquafit class you’ve gone to for years got more expensive. You get less but pay more.
That isn’t a recreation problem. It’s a management problem, a loneliness problem, and a health problem. Recreation is preventive medicine. A city that prices seniors out will only pay the price later.
Here’s what I will do with Mike Starchuk and Imagine Surrey. We will cut recreation fees for seniors by 50% immediately. We will end the Super Senior surcharge. We will make select programs free for seniors. And we’ll build three new community centres, funded partly by building the arena on cheaper land instead of the $360-million downtown deal the current council agreed to this summer in closed meetings. A seniors’ program is only as good as the building it’s in and the bus that gets you there: we will invest in both.
The same parties have run this city and failed to deliver for you. Ask yourself what happened to the seniors’ fee schedule while the others were in charge. Council found room for a $360-million arena. It couldn’t find the will to make a swim affordable for your family.
I co-founded the Daughters of Hope Resources Society here in Surrey to support women and children that our system missed. In 2024 the Province gave me its Medal of Good Citizenship for work on poverty and social exclusion. I sit on the City’s Livability, Social Equity and Public Safety Committee, where the phrase we keep coming back to is “complete community.” A complete community keeps a place for the people who built it.
As prices go up, we cannot put undue pressure on our seniors. It’s time to give them a break, starting with recreation fees.
On October 17, please vote for Mike Starchuk and the Imagine Surrey team.
Dr. Margaret K. Mubanda, co-founder of the Daughters of Hope Resources Society and a 2024 recipient of the Province’s Medal of Good Citizenship, is an Imagine Surrey candidate for Surrey City Council.