Jack Hundial becomes third city councillor to resign from Safe Surrey Coalition
Posted July 18, 2019 6:08 am.
Last Updated July 18, 2019 10:35 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
SURREY (NEWS 1130) – The Safe Surrey Coalition has lost another member.
Jack Hundial joins councillors Brenda Locke and Steven Pettigrew in leaving Mayor Doug McCallum’s civic party.
Concerns over the planned transition from the RCMP to a municipal police force are at the heart of Hundial’s decision, he says.
“There’s no guarantee that the community’s going to be safer with the mayor’s police transition plan,” the former police officer tells NEWS 1130. “I can’t support any plan that says, you know, we need to pay more for less police officers.”
Hundial also cites the work environment created by the mayor for his departure, saying when he ran, “I ran with transparency in every process that we do here. I’m just not getting that here with this council, and certainly with this mayor.”
He adds the mayor has “made it very clear that he has a majority, and will continue to use his majority to push his agenda forward.
The transition away from the Surrey RCMP has been a contentious issue around the community, as well as within council.
The city’s report on the plan was handed over to the B.C. government in June for review. Some councillors have raised concerns about the report, saying the budget is too vague, for example.
Hundial says he will continue to review the report, and “identify gaps,” adding he’s already highlighted large ones.
“I don’t take my decision lightly,” he says.
Locke announced in late June that she would be bolting from the same party, saying McCallum has a “my-way-or-the-highway approach to governing.”
Pettigrew left the Safe Surrey Coalition after council failed to protect Hawthorne Park from the city pushing a road through it.
Hundial believes the fact that three councillors have now left the party points to issues withing McCallum’s leadership.
“The City of Surrey elected nine individuals — not just one,” he explains.
Hundial will stay on council as an independent.
In a statement to NEWS 1130, McCallum says “We take our pledge to the voters seriously and it is our obligation to [fulfill] the commitments we openly campaigned on.”
He claims the majority his party has on council is “solid and strongly united.”
“I can assure you the Safe Surrey Coalition is now even more focused and energized to deliver on what we promised to the voters of Surrey,” McCallum adds. “We have already delivered on the majority of what we campaigned on and we are moving fully ahead in completing the promises that we made to the people of Surrey.”
-With files from Taran Parmar
