(A White Paper for the Surrey Economic Summit Contributing to the Liveable Cities Theme) This paper makes the case for a new framework to make Surrey the best place for creative workers to live, work and contribute to sustainable economic growth and overall quality of life. Rising property taxes, rents and inflation in the value of industrial and office property have set up the preconditions for a migration of the so-called ‘creatives’ to the ‘edge cities’ in North America. Surrey’s designation as a Cultural Capital of Canada in 2008 offers an opportunity to consolidate a creative city strategy that is not found in the recent Parks, Recreation and Culture Plan (2007-2017) endorsed by its City Council in July 2008. The most effective strategy for edge cities to adopt is to complement but differentiate from the cultural competencies of the core cities, while seeking new cooperative partnerships with others at the edge. As BC’s second largest city, Surrey should develop a specialised and separate cultural/creative planning capacity, instate a city grants program and other support programs, and cooperate in a feasibility study for mapping and expanding regional creative labour and enterprise capacity.
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