PROUDLY Surrey party on Friday announced that Parshotam Goel has been nominated as their fourth Council candidate in the upcoming Surrey civic election.

This completes Proudly Surrey’s nominations of School Board and Council candidates, fielding slates of four candidates for each of the two municipal boards:

Goel said: “My primary interest is to make city hall’s decision-making process accountable and transparent. I know from years of experience just how opaque, confusing and unaccountable our decision-making process is. As a developer, I had a choice: throw in with a party that might give me privileged access to this unaccountable system or join with the party that has the best, most comprehensive plan to reform that system and bring transparency to our city government.”

Parker, who is also the co-founder of Proudly Surrey, said: “Many people will be surprised that we are running a candidate who works in the development and construction industry, but we feel that Par will bring a strong, practical analysis and a wealth of experience to the project of executing our tough, innovative development policies. Policies like parking lot infill, building envelope infill and agricultural land preservation.”

Goel is 68 years old and lives in the Surrey neighbourhood of Sullivan. Par, as he is known to his friends and associates, is married with three children. He is the president and owner of Peace Park Developments which focuses on residential and commercial projects throughout Metro Vancouver. Par is currently Secretary of the Hindu-Sikh Forum of North America.

Goel said: “And, of course, it is not just development decisions that are so predictably unaccountable and take place out of public view. We have an excellent rapid transit option for our city that risks being rejected by voters in this election because of the lack of public trust and legitimacy in both the process that selected it and the councillors who participated.

“Proudly Surrey has a plan to solve these problems with reforms to the voting system, hearing processes, councillors’ offices and all of the things that link citizens to decisions by councillors. I’m enthusiastic about the policies the party has already announced and, after a good look at the policies to come, I am looking forward to introducing our whole transparency package to the public in September.”