Surrey councillor Barinder Rasode sees a link between public safety and real estate.

In an interview with the Georgia Straight at the recent Korean Cultural Heritage Festival in Burnaby, she revealed that perceptions about crime are having an effect on the housing market near Surrey Central Station.

“We built the City Hall and said the purpose was around economic development in the downtown core,” Rasode stated. “What I’m hearing from those developers is all they’re hearing at their sales centres is that people don’t want to buy units because of the crime issue.”

The mother of three is eager to advance solutions in the upcoming municipal election. She favours the city hiring trained community-safety personnel to help prevent crime.

“It’s not new,” Rasode said. “Edmonton, Winnipeg, Halifax, and Langford, through their bylaws department, have not only embraced this, but over the years seen great success.”

The potential mayoral candidate claimed that by readjusting priorities, her city can spend more on public safety without causing hardship to taxpayers.

Earlier this year, Rasode quit Surrey First, which is headed by Mayor Dianne Watts, after disagreements over public safety and the level of government transparency.

While Rasode credited Watts for “very progressive work in some areas”, the independent councillor said that Surrey hasn’t maintained resources to match the city’s growth.

She pointed out that 1,000 residents per month are moving to the sprawling suburb, which has two border crossings, a large industrial land base, and huge tracts within the Agricultural Land Reserve.

“When you look at 36 [police] officers per shift in a city that is larger than Vancouver, Richmond, and Burnaby combined…it’s not meeting the needs of residents or businesses,” Rasode asserted.

The Vancouver Police Department has 1,327 police officers, according to its most recent annual report, and the city had over 603,000 residents in the 2011 census.

Surrey has 703 RCMP officers serving about 500,000 residents.

Rasode said that Surrey RCMP initially supported the addition of nine community-safety officers, but “a decision was made in Ottawa to discontinue the pilot.”

“I have the utmost confidence in our officers on the ground,” Rasode emphasized. “They are working in some very difficult situations. In terms of the support I have for the institution of the RCMP, that is solid. What I am saying is that the RCMP is going to have to embrace a different model to serve the needs of Surrey.”

Rasode has worked with developmentally disabled youth and to prevent domestic abuse, and she expressed strong support for restorative-justice and harm-reduction programs.

When asked if the City of Surrey should endorse a supervised-injection site, she replied: “I am an advocate of making sure that when we are bringing something into the community that the public not only be educated about it properly, but [be] included in the decision. At this point, we need to do much more work on educating the public on the benefits of those types of programs.”

Meanwhile, Rasode also expressed concerns about the lack of council oversight over the municipality’s Surrey City Development Corporation. While she praised the board of directors for its real-estate expertise, she questioned why the SCDC is using public funds to buy strip malls and invest in multifamily housing projects in competition with the private sector.

Rasode also worries about the SCDC’s debt, which reached $96 million in its 2013 annual report. She argued that it should build rental housing and provide space to nonprofit organizations.

In last week’s Georgia Straight, real-estate analyst Don Campbell praised Surrey for focusing development in town centres, protecting farmland, and providing more affordable housing than what’s for sale in Vancouver.

However, Rasode said that the status quo isn’t good enough “because there’s always room for improvement”.

She added that voters are not in the mood to accept politicians who get up on a podium and say they “choose to run for mayor”. (Two candidates, Coun. Linda Hepner and former mayor Doug McCallum, have already announced their intention to seek the city's top job.)

“I think you need to demonstrate that you not only have the blessing of the community, but are an advocate of what the community wants,” Rasode said. “At the municipal level of government, what I think is really key is that we cannot be establishment candidates.”