Western Canada: B.C. orders Surrey to drop RCMP and move to municipal police force

Good morning, Mark Iype in Edmonton today.

After five years, there finally appears to be an answer as to which police force will be patrolling the streets of Surrey.

On Wednesday, B.C. Solicitor-General Mike Farnworth put an end to what had become a fight between two entrenched factions, and decided that the province’s second-largest city would continue with a transition away from the RCMP and to a municipal police force.

The long-awaited, precedent-setting decision by Mr. Farnworth went against the wishes of Mayor Brenda Locke, who ran on a platform last fall to scrap the transition and stick with the RCMP. But the province decided her plan was “not safe.”

“Unfortunately, the city of Surrey has failed to meet mandatory requirements to go back to the RCMP. That puts people at risk,” Mr. Farnworth said.

He acknowledged that his intervention is an extraordinary step, but said it was something the province’s Police Act allows him to do.

“It is just not safe to go backward, and it is clear people in Surrey want this uncertainty over. At this point, moving forward with the Surrey Police Service is the only path forward.”

Ms. Locke called the decision “disappointing, misguided and based on inaccurate assumptions” in a statement released shortly after the announcement. While she also said she thought the legal power of the Solicitor-General to overrule the city had been misinterpreted, she did not say whether the city would take legal action against the province.

At a time when the federal government is reconsidering the RCMP’s role in contract policing for municipalities in Canada, the decision could set an example for smaller communities considering a similar move. Surrey is the largest city in Canada that is currently policed by the RCMP.

SPS Chief Constable Norm Lipinski said Thursday he is hoping the police service can now get back on track with hiring, which has been on hold since the new mayor and council was elected in October.

One of the main holdups in the decision-making process had been around how the RCMP would fully staff the Surrey detachment without having to pull officers from already short-staffed regions.

The SPS needs to hire about 400 more officers to get to Surrey’s authorized strength of 734, but Chief Lipinski said that won’t affect the province’s “policing ecosystem” as much as staying with the RCMP because he can hire from a much wider pool.

This is the weekly Western Canada newsletter written by B.C. Editor Wendy Cox and Alberta Bureau Chief Mark Iype. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.