Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke is slamming the provincial budget delivered Tuesday (March 4), saying Surrey has been shortchanged yet again.
Speaking from Victoria on Tuesday afternoon. Locke told the Now-Leader she's "really disappointed. This is becoming a long-standing oversight for our city and it's becoming very frustrating, fundamentally wrong, Surrey families are just neglected, it's failed Surrey families.
"Whether it's education, or transportation, or health care, social infrastructure, Surrey is going to be left behind without a plan to move forward and I think that is the tragedy of this budget," Locke said. "We in Surrey have reached that tipping point. We had hoped, I had thought, we would see something for Surrey but we did not."
Surrey's mayor said she wanted to see "more attention" on hospitals in Surrey. "We heard re-announcements, for sure. That's not helpful."
On the education front, she added, even with Surrey's school board revealing it's $16 million short, "we didn't see anything other than a re-announcement of the Fleetwood school.
"I almost hate to say this, but there should not be one more nickel spent on health care and education in this province until it's spent whole-heartedly and aggressively in Surrey. There shouldn't be building in other cities until we get even close to where the bar is, we're not even close."
Locke said Surrey's growth is not a surprise to anybody. "We know we're going to hit a million people, they know we're going to hit a million people. They are demanding we build to hit that million people and yet they're doing nothing to support the infrastructure that we need for that million people. I'm just incredibly disappointed. You know, we just won't stop fighting until Surrey residents are treated with respect and get their rightful share. We'll not stop fighting for that."
Finance Minister Brenda Bailey's budget forecasts a deficit exceeding $10.9 billion in 2025-26 – almost exactly $2 billion, or 22 per cent, higher than what was forecast in the previous year.
Meanwhile, the province is looking to a total of $84 billion in revenue and $94.9 billion in expenses. Depending on the scenario, annual revenue losses for government could reach a high of $3.4 billion per year, and as low as $1.6 billion, through 2029.
Bailey presented these figures mere hours after the United States imposed 25 per cent tariffs on all Canadian goods and 10 per cent on energy products.
Locke was none too pleased with last year's provincial budget either, finding that one to be "surprisingly disappointing."
"We were definitely shortchanged again this year," she lamented Tuesday. "After all that's happened in the last year, especially with the election, I had thought they had heard the message sent by Surrey residents and clearly they have not."
For this new budget, Locke said she doesn't see in it anything that "really reflected what I had hoped would be reflected from the tariffs so I know we have to look to the Fall update because the impact of the tariffs I don't think was properly reflected in this budget."
Surrey stands to be hit hard by Trump's tariffs. According to a backgrounder provided by the City of Surrey, there are 113 importing and exporting businesses operating in Surrey as well as 900 transportation and warehousing companies that stand to be adversely affected by the tariffs. Surrey's manufacturing sector – comprised of roughly 960 businesses – employs more than 23,500 workers.
Surrey is Canada's only city with two land border crossings.
"According to our most recent data," Locke said, "over 20 per cent of Surrey businesses have direct trade ties with the United States, representing roughly $2.8 billion in cross-border commerce each year.
Premier David Eby said Tuesday morning the provincial government will do "everything we can to keep food costs down" as the Canadian dollar gets weaker and to ensure food security "in the event that the president decides to attack Canada in different ways. Conversations we never thought we would have, we're having them today."
Eby said we're living in a "strange moment where what worked in the past, committing to address shared areas of concern with our partner the United States, is met with threats to our sovereignty."
– with a file from Wolfgang Depner.
