SURREY, B.C. -- Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum has been deemed at fault in a car crash that injured an 81-year-old woman — a crash that is prompting more calls for transparency around his deal to drive a city-owned vehicle while still receiving a car allowance.
The mayor’s office has said he is repaying the city for the costs of driving the car — but that unusual arrangement becomes much more complicated because a crash may make it harder to tally the exact costs and make sure the city is fairly repaid, said Councillor Brenda Locke.
“He needs to come clean with whatever this arrangement is,” Locke told CTV News. “The public is incensed about this. It’s the public’s money.”
The crash, which happened on July 17, was described as a “fender-bender” by the mayor’s office at the time. Many media outlets did not report it, assuming that he was driving his private vehicle, though he does receive a $14,580 car allowance.
Last week CTV News reported that the City of Surrey had bought a $46,000 Buick Envision SUV for the mayor to drive in January 2019, without any public announcement. A photo showed him filling up the vehicle using a City of Surrey gas pump, which offers a cheaper rate.
The mayor has said he is paying the city back for any car costs, but when asked for payment details, told CTV News to file a freedom of information request, which could take weeks. Councillor Jack Hundial has already called for an ethics commissioner probe into the arrangement.
CTV News reached out to the woman whose car was hit from behind in the crash, which happened on 16 Avenue in South Surrey around 2:30 p.m. She said she has no interest in politics and did not want to speak about the matter, except to confirm factual details and allow ICBC to provide more information.
She said she didn’t recognize the mayor at the time. The mayor wrote his name down on a piece of paper, handed it to her, and left the scene.
ICBC said the woman reported the crash at 4:22 p.m. that day. It said it did receive another report from the other driver.
ICBC said the woman has been deemed not at fault for the collision, and the other driver — that is, the mayor — has been deemed at fault. The woman’s insurance will cover the estimated $1,136.40 in damages to her car, a Chevrolet Cavalier. The car hasn’t been fixed yet, ICBC says.
What may be more costly is the treatment for her injury. She said her head hit her rear-view mirror in the crash, knocking it off the windshield, and dazing her. So far, that has amounted to some 20 visits to a physiotherapist, she said.
The mayor’s car is covered under the city’s fleet insurance policy, and was not significantly damaged, the mayor’s office said.
But that could result in hidden costs for the taxpayers that the mayor should be paying, said former Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner.
“The city absorbs its own insurance losses,” she said, adding that she had a car allowance as mayor — but did not get a city-owned vehicle.
“My expectation is you have your own car. You don’t use the city’s car, getting groceries, using the city’s gas. I don’t get that,” she said.
Locke said the mayor should have shown more leadership in declaring his intention to buy the car — and in taking more care at the scene of the crash.
“Whenever you injure someone, that’s not a ‘fender-bender’. If the lady is 80 plus years old, that took another level of care, which apparently didn’t happen. He should have stayed with the lady and made sure she was OK and got help,” she said.
Locke, who was elected with the mayor’s Safe Surrey slate in 2018 before quitting along with two other councillors, called on other members of city council to ask to make the mayor’s deal regarding the car public.
Doug Elford, who remains on the Safe Surrey slate, told CTV News if the mayor is repaying the costs of the car, he doesn’t see what the big deal is.
“It’s six of one, half a dozen of the other,” he said.
