A Surrey police officer speaks with a colleague at the back of a police vehicle in Surrey, B.C., on July 19, 2023. Brian Sauvé, president of the National Police Federation, said any city pondering a move to its own municipal police force should learn the importance of transparency about all finances and implications of the change.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
The years-long, zigzagging transition to a municipal police force in Surrey, B.C., has become a case study in how not to proceed for any other city considering a move away from the RCMP, says the head of the Mounties’ police union.
Brian Sauvé, president of the National Police Federation, said any city pondering a move to its own municipal police force should learn the importance of transparency about all finances and implications of the change. Any transition should have a thorough feasibility study at the beginning stages. Surrey did none of that, he noted.
“It’s an example of what not to do,” said Mr. Sauvé.
Last week, Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke indicated in a statement she read out that council would end its battle with the province to keep the RCMP as the force for the city of just over half a million people.
Surrey’s transition to a new municipal police force began under former mayor Doug McCallum, but Ms. Locke unseated him in the 2022 election while running on a platform to keep the RCMP. Ms. Locke has long argued the switch would be too costly to municipal taxpayers. The provincial government stepped in last year to order the change, prompting a lawsuit from Surrey, which the city lost.
“I accept the decision and we are moving forward with what the city needs to do to make sure our residents are prioritized,” Ms. Locke said.
Mr. Sauvé said his union has accepted that the fight is over, but now it’s time to figure out the best process for completing the transition to the municipal service
How it all gets paid for is still unclear.
Ms. Locke told council she believes “this NDP-imposed transition” will not serve Surrey taxpayers, noting once again that public reports have estimated the new force could cost between $32-million and $75-million a year more than the cost of the RCMP.
The B.C. government pledged to provide $150-million over five years to cover increased costs and included an assurance that if Surrey Police Service officers were more expensive than RCMP officers in 2029, the province would cover the difference until 2034 up to $20-million. Surrey rejected the offer, but the province has said it would use the $150-million to support the transition anyway.
But the city’s 2024 budget limits any new money to the Surrey Police Service to only the officers and staff who had been hired up to last fall. There was no provision in that budget, passed in late April, to provide additional money to hire the additional hundreds of officers and staff still needed to bring the force up to the full 734 officers authorized for the city.
Ms. Locke said the city manager has created a team of experts to monitor the progress being made and to request that the province provide clarity on what the actual additional costs will be.
Surrey Police Board administrator Mike Serr, the former Abbotsford police chief who was appointed by the province last September to temporarily replace the board, had put forward a budget of $141.5-million for 2024. But Surrey council passed a budget that provided for only $48.8-million for the force, something that Mr. Serr has asked the province’s director of policing services to review.
Because of the city’s budget decision, the province has been paying directly for new hires, who, for the moment, cannot be included in the human-resources system the city has in place for the rest of its police officers, both RCMP and SPS.
Curt Griffiths, a Simon Fraser University professor who is a policing expert and consultant to the province, said the B.C. government may have to step in to redo the city’s budget.
He said Ms. Locke “needs to carry out the role of mayor, get out of the way and stop being obstructive. Her delaying tactics have been very costly.”
The SPS and Solicitor-General Mike Farnworth have been circumspect with their statements since Ms. Locke spoke to council last week as all sides make tentative arrangements to figure out a new process.
Mr. Sauvé said that process will need to be clear before Nov. 29, the date the SPS officially takes over.
He said RCMP officers who have been waiting, some of them up to two years, to plan their move out of Surrey need to know when those transfers might finally come through.
With a report from The Canadian Press