 | Friday, October 22, 2021
Reading this online? Sign up to get this delivered to your inbox every Friday. | | Surrey’s sign regulation a curious choice given power imbalances | | |  | | | If Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum isn’t worried about the group wanting to keep the RCMP in his city, he has a funny way of showing it.
On Monday evening, Surrey council voted to change its sign bylaws, adding new language regulating political signs and banners during referendums, plebiscites, recall petitions and initiative petitions.
The bylaw doesn’t ban political signs during an initiative petition, but it does subject them to the same regulations as signs in elections, and says they have to be removed within 14 days after the deadline to gather petitions. And as everyone following Surrey politics knows, there is currently an initiative petition underway: one that seeks to force a referendum on the city’s decision to create an independent police force, the centrepoint of McCallum’s 2018 election victory.
One can argue whether the timing of the bylaw was coincidental or politically motivated. But it’s the third time in less than two months that McCallum (or at least, the will of the city council he chairs) has helped give attention to the very petition he opposes so fervently.
The first was when McCallum issued a statement alleging he was run over by a vehicle during a previously unreported altercation with RCMP demonstrators, which is now subject to multiple investigations. The second was when council banned a number of Surrey residents from attending council meetings because of alleged “aggressive and disorderly behaviour” in meetings. Then came this week’s sign bylaw.
You can debate who is right or wrong in all three decisions. What’s beyond debate, however, is the recall initiative isn’t politically binding, because provincial law doesn’t force any response to campaigns focused in a single municipality.
And while organizers are hopeful a large number of petitions will convince the province to intervene, they have been consistent in saying they respect the will of Surrey council, and won’t interfere.
In other words, there’s a power imbalance at play: McCallum holds all the cards, while the pro-RCMP supporters hold very few. But rather than ignore them, the mayor says things and casts votes amplifying their message, putting them back in the news.
It’s not the first controversial choice from McCallum, and it likely won’t be his last. | | |  | | | 2. Vancouver | Meanwhile in Vancouver ... we kid somewhat, but among the topics we covered in an interview with Mayor Kennedy Stewart was the efficiency of the council he chairs. Elsewhere, council began hearing from citizens about the future of one neighbourhood in South False Creek, and the city unveiled plans for a new neighbourhood in the Jericho Lands.
Read more | | | |  | | | 3. Nelson | Can cities be sued because they did a bad job with snow removal? It may be less of a question in Metro Vancouver, but Nelson’s loss in the Supreme Court of Canada will be watched by many municipalities (or more to the point, municipal lawyers), particularly in the way the court articulated the difference between policy and operational decisions. Read more | | | | | |  | | | 4. Langford | It’s usually provincial or federal governments creating programs to try and help with home ownership, but Langford has created a $3 million fund to help first-time buyers with putting down a down payment on
a local condo. One wonders if it
could be a model for other cities ... or a gimmick that is too limited in scope to make a real impact.
Read more in the Times Colonist | | | |  | | | 5. Pickleball | The sport is growing quickly. The sport is loud (or at least louder than tennis), and can come into conflict with other groups. The sport plays on surfaces typically regulated by cities. And the sport is popular with demographics that show up to vote. Anyways, linked are three more pickleball stories from three different B.C. municipalities in the last three days.
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