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Rasode releases names of contributors

Safe Surrey Coalition and Surrey First say it's too late to release the names of their donors
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Barinder Rasode

One of the three main mayoral candidates in Surrey has released her contributions list.

One Surrey's Barinder Rasode released her contribution list on Friday – the day before the election.

Team Surrey – consisting of council candidates Brenda Locke and Stephen Gammer – released the names of their contributors earlier this month.

Surrey First and Safe Surrey Coalition said Friday they couldn't release their campaign contributions at such a late hour in the electoral process.

By law, candidates have until 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 13,  2015 to disclose campaign contributions to Elections BC.

Rasode released a partial list on Friday.

It shows she, as of Nov. 14, had collected $193, 925. She added there will be in-kind donations for the lease space and some signs that were printed.

The average donation to the Rasode campaign was $1,469, with the larger donors being Best Automotive ($15,000), Value Industries Ltd. ($10,000) and the Rasode family ($10,000).

Business donations add up to $140,450 from 58 donors on the One Surrey sendout, while $47,150 come from 67 personal donations. A total of $6,500 came from three unions, while four more totalling $6,950 came from online.

Jonathan Ross, director of communications for Doug McCallum's Safe Surrey Coalition, said the numbers aren't ready to release.

"We're not going to be releasing them… it has not been a high priority on our list," Ross said Friday.  "We haven't compiled them properly as of yet."

Surrey First Campaign Manager Stewart Braddick also said the coalition would be hard pressed to get the figures out at the 11th hour.

"It's very kind of her to do it at the last minute," Braddick said. "Easy for her to do it if she's planned it on her own. We couldn't organize it in time if we wanted to release it in time today."

Rasode said she released them before the statutory requirements to demonstrate transparency.

"We talked about being open and transparent, and we thought it was time to walk the walk," Rasode said.

The election is Saturday, Nov. 15, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.