A roundup of news from Surrey’s campaign trail on Wednesday, Oct. 12 (this story will be updated as needed):
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1:49 p.m.: United Surrey mayoral candidate Sukh Dhaliwal says, if elected, he is committed to providing city-owned warehousing capacity to the Surrey Christmas Bureau.
“The City of Surrey has a number of eligible facilities that are centrally located and easily accessible by transit that can be offered for use and United Surrey will take immediate action to find a space for the Surrey Christmas Bureau following the election,” says Dhaliwal.
The Surrey Christmas Bureau is feeling the commercial space crunch in the city as it searches for a place to house its yearly Toy Depot this fall.
United Surrey City Council candidate Jasbir Sandhu has already reached out to to Surrey Christmas Bureau co-chair Penny Priddy to make this intent known and to start looking at possibilities to move quickly.
The Christmas Bureau’s mission is to provide toys and holiday meals to Surrey families that otherwise couldn’t afford Christmas gifts for their children.Last year, the organization issued nearly $190,000 in grocery vouchers, which translates to 21,102 holiday meals, and provided new toys to 4,520 children.
“It is critical to make the logistical arrangements necessary to open up a space that is large enough and convenient for families, and so I commit to finding a suitable space and the needed planning/support by the end of October,” adds Dhaliwal.
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9:02 a.m.: Surrey Forward, led by Jinny Sims, sends a press release claiming the slate’s campaign is “reaching new levels of momentum at the right time.”
For example, the campaign says 500,000 individual brochures have been delivered to the 170,000 apartments and homes in Surrey and 2,600 lawn signs have been placed, with permission of the homeowner, on private lawns, as well as 400 “large signs.”
Surrey Foward also says tens of thousands of calls have been made to union members and “an equal number of calls have been made by professional callers to those who have provided contact information to Surrey Forward and volunteer callers to their own networks.” The new slate claims total calls made by Surrey Forward will be in excess of 100,000 by the completion of the campaign.
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6:34 a.m.: Surrey Connect mayoral candidate Brenda Locke sends a press release announcing that she will advocate to bring a third tower to Surrey Memorial Hospital, should she be elected.
“Surrey’s population has grown so much we need more capacity at Surrey Memorial Hospital in addition to the hospital proposed for Cloverdale,” said Locke.
She said the announcement is in response to the need for trauma, stroke and cardiac services in Surrey. In many cases, patients are sent to Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster.
Surrey Connect also proposed a health co-ordinator that would serve as a liaison between city hall and the Fraser Health Authority.
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