SURREY, B.C. - Mayor-elect Doug McCallum and eight councillors-elect will be sworn into office tonight at Surrey City Hall, closing the book on the October 17 municipal election and opening the city’s next four-year council term.
The inauguration ceremony begins at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 13450 – 104 Avenue, and will be livestreamed on the City’s website. The program includes a welcome, an honour guard, the oath of office for the mayor and councillors, and an inaugural address.
McCallum, of the Safe Surrey Coalition, was elected mayor on October 17 with 42,741 votes (31.94 percent), defeating incumbent Brenda Locke, who received 30,886 votes (23.08 percent). The City has since posted its official results.
Taking their seats alongside McCallum tonight are councillors-elect Harry Bains, Cheney Cloke, Doug Elford, Meera Gill, Suhana Gill, Laurie Guerra, Mandeep Nagra and Allison Patton, as listed on the City’s inauguration page.
The new council takes over a fast-growing city where the last term’s biggest files included policing, housing, and major capital projects. The inauguration is open to the public in person and online, and residents who cannot attend can watch the livestream from home.
For Surrey residents, tonight matters because the people sworn in will set the city’s direction for the next four years: the budgets, the bylaws, and the big decisions on growth, roads, and community facilities in neighbourhoods from Newton and Guildford to Fleetwood, Cloverdale and South Surrey.
(Source: City of Surrey, inauguration event page)
