Surrey civic election: United Surrey announces Public Safety Plan

Amidst public safety issues being reduced to electoral politics and instruments for division, United Surrey is proudly introducing its four-point Public Safety Plan for tangible, positive impact.

Developed in collaboration with community leaders, each proposal is designed to have direct and immediate positive impact for Surrey residents.

The four pillars of the United Surrey Public Safety Plan are:

Donation of land holdings towards the construction of a new Surrey-based law enforcement training facility in collaboration with the provincial government and other Metro Vancouver municipalities in order to address current hiring and recruitment bottlenecks;

The introduction of a three-tier system that guarantees timely and appropriate citizen responses by better utilizing a combination of law enforcement, mental health professionals and bylaw officers;

Integrated coordination through a new City Hall youth hub designed to centralize services, collaboration, venues, funding and accountability for youth outreach and support (with gang education and prevention strategies used as fundamental accountability metrics for all city-financed youth programming);

A commitment to hire 15 new fire fighters annually for five years as well as construct a new firehall in Surrey City Centre to better address increased density and the ongoing opioid crisis.

Public safety solutions must be diversified to tackle the range of issues and concerns Surrey residents, according to United Surrey Mayoral candidate Sukh Dhaliwal.

"Our platform offers real solutions to several of the major public safety issues our city is facing on a daily basis," says Dhaliwal. "Slogans and simplistic approaches are inadequate for Surrey’s rapid growth because residents deserve better than those using politics for personal gain."

With the current Mayor and Council and opposition parties focused on which uniforms officers wear and a number of tactics to create division amongst residents, it is time for new leadership that puts the needs of people ahead of all other considerations.

The United Surrey Public Safety Plan is carefully constructed to accomplish just that.

"A future path forward cannot be determined by bickering about the past because this election is about choosing the best team to advance the interests of Surrey as BC’s soon-to-be largest city," adds Dhaliwal.