Statement from Mayor Doug McCallum: Ethics Commissioner Bylaw Amendment

At today’s Regular Council Land Use meeting at 5:30pm, I will be introducing a motion to remove from tonight’s Regular Council Public Hearing agenda item H 15, the bylaw to suspend the processing and investigation of new complaints by the Surrey Ethics Commissioner in the period leading up to the 2022 Local General Election. The work of the Ethics Commissioner is valuable and the misinformation circulating about the bylaw is unfortunate. If the motion is approved by Council, I will ask the Ethics Commissioner to bring a report to a future open Council meeting for consideration on how to improve the bylaw. The goal is to strengthen the bylaw to ensure the Office of the Ethics Commissioner is not used for partisan purposes during the election period.

Mayor Doug McCallum

City of Surrey