Sukh Dhaliwal MP, Ashiana Hanif, Team up for Surrey Elections

Seattle WA

24 February, 2022

8:31 PM

Description

The construction delay for the new Cloverdale Arena complex has cost taxpayers more than $20 million, says Surrey City Councillor Brenda Locke, candidate Mayor Surrey 2022. " Mayor Doug McCallum is responsible for burdening the Surrey Taxpayers of $ 20 Million Dollars", said Jennifer Hamilton. After a corporate report on the new arena was presented at a city council meeting Feb. 14, Locke is calling out Mayor Doug McCallum over the delays. Sources confirm Member Parliament Sukh Dhaliwal and Media Wave Surrey Ceo., Ashiana Hanif, have teamed together as candidate for Mayor and Council for coming Surrey Municipal Elections in October 2022. Official Announcement and members of his team will be announced in Mid-March. Locke wrote in a press release Feb. 16 that McCallum and Safe Surrey cost taxpayers $24 million dollars by delaying the arena. “The arena project was costed at $35 million in the 2018-2022 Financial Plan,” she wrote. “The dollars to pay for it would have come through internal borrowing.” The arena was removed from the 2019 budget but was later added to the 2022-2025 financial plan at a cost of $55 million. The Cloverdale Arena project was originally started in 2017 and about $4 million was spent on getting the project wheels rolling and prepping the land. Trees were removed and some ground works were done. Then in 2019, the project was removed from the budget. Locke said the $4 million that was spent several years ago was “wasted on previous preparation.”Last summer, Mayor McCallum said the Cloverdale Arena project was scheduled to break ground in spring 2022. According to a corporate report that was presented to city council Feb. 14, that timeline is still on schedule. That document, corporate report R035, noted the process for the rink would start as soon as council approved an increase for expenditure authorization, which they did. That means, barring any other delays, shovels should be in the ground this spring and kids should be skating on ice at the north end of the Fairgrounds by early 2024. The corporate report noted, “The Cloverdale Sport & Ice Complex will accommodate the community’s needs for ice sports and programming, offering ice hockey, figure skating, public lessons, skating sessions, and dry-floor summer use for sports, such as lacrosse and ball hockey.”