A preview of Mayor Brenda Locke’s annual State of the City address (set for May 14) focuses on a longstanding issue of both importance and relevance: the lack of a Surrey MP in the federal cabinet.
Surrey will soon be B.C.’s largest city. It is among the fastest-growing. It has had its own MPs since the 1960s. But none of them has ever been in cabinet.
As Tom Zytaruk reported in the Now-Leader, Locke is calling for that to change. Her call was well-timed — Prime Minister Mark Carney’s new cabinet was to be named on Tuesday. The recent election saw Liberal MPs win five of the seven seats that have Surrey within their boundaries.
Canadian tradition calls for at least one MP from each province to be part of cabinet. At times, that hasn’t happened — usually because of provinces not electing any government MPs. Large cities are usually represented as well, again depending on which party holds the seats.
In Surrey’s case, distant Ottawa has seen the Greater Vancouver region as one urban area. There have been cabinet ministers from Richmond, Burnaby, both North and West Vancouver, the Tri-City area, Delta, Abbotsford and Chilliwack — and of course many from Vancouver — but none from Surrey.
Carney has said his cabinet will be balanced equally between men and women, as his predecessor Justin Trudeau did. He will have plenty of both to choose from, with 170 Liberal MPs elected from every province.
That may make having a Surrey representative more challenging. Only one woman was elected in the five Liberal ridings that include Surrey: Jill McKnight of the Delta riding. The riding now includes a small corner of Surrey, in the Panorama Ridge area. McKnight could be a good choice. As former executive director of Delta Chamber of Commerce, she is well-versed in many areas of the economy that Carney has said he wishes to prioritize.
Her predecessor as Delta MP, Carla Qualtrough, served in the Trudeau cabinet in a number of portfolios, including sport, employment and public services and procurement. She chose not to run again after serving for almost 10 years as an MP.
Locke pointed out in her remarks that Surrey grows by 28 people per day. She also noted that Surrey City Centre grew by 25 per cent from 2016 to 2021, and Newton has over 158,000 people — the equivalent of the City of Coquitlam.
Surrey also has the most available developable industrial land in the Lower Mainland — a critical economic advantage.
Asked what portfolios a potential Surrey cabinet minister might hold, Locke named obvious ones like housing, transportation and infrastructure and also PacifiCan (Pacific Economic Development Canada), which already operates in Surrey.
“(Having cabinet representation) is a crucial step to support our continued development and to ensure that Surrey receives the attention and resources it deserves as a major Canadian city," Locke said.
Hopefully Carney or future prime ministers won’t wait until Surrey is the first B.C. city to reach one million residents before finally realizing that a voice representing Surrey is needed in Ottawa.
Frank Bucholtz writes twice monthly on political issues for Black Press Media publications.
