Surrey council plans crackdown on illegal dumping

Surrey’s Safe Surrey Coalition-majority council is set to wage war on illegal dumping as of Nov. 2. Coun. Doug Elford said the city wants to increase the cost of doing business for people who dump junk on Surrey’s roadsides. “The message will be just don’t do it,” he said.

In a Sept. 8 news release, Surrey’s new mayor, Doug McCallum, said that, if elected, he would bring a motion to council’s inaugural meeting on Nov. 2 to impose what he called the toughest illegal-dumping rules in B.C. Under the proposed rules, a company caught dumping illegally within city limits would lose its business licence and be barred from operating in Surrey for 10 years. Anyone caught dumping would receive a fixed $10,000 fine every time, rather than a fine of up to $10,000.

“Surrey is our home, not a landfill,” McCallum said during the election campaign. “The people who treat this city like a dump are going to find out it is the most expensive mistake they ever made.” He said the illegal dumping sites are well-known, with the same corners and back lanes used repeatedly. The city would wait for offenders, he said, install cameras at known hotspots and use its drone program to help track the trucks and companies behind the dumping. He added that people who dump in Surrey at 2 a.m. and think nobody saw them would be wrong: “We saw you. And now you’ll pay for it.”