B.C. Solicitor-General Mike Farnworth during a news conference in the press theatre at the legislature in Victoria on April 28.CHAD HIPOLITO/The Canadian Press
B.C.’s second-largest city is being ordered to continue with a transition away from the RCMP and to a municipal police force, in a precedent-setting decision by the province’s Solicitor-General.
After five years of wrangling and recent months of increasingly hostile debate about which police force Surrey should get, Mike Farnworth said that the plan the city recently came up with to retain the RCMP – a promise that was a central plank of Mayor Brenda Locke’s election platform last fall – 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,” he said, saying his intervention is an extraordinary step but something the province’s Police Act allows him to do.
“It is just not safe to go backwards, 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.”
That means the RCMP will lose its contract in the largest city that it currently polices in Canada. It is also a significant move at a time when the federal government is considering changing the RCMP’s role in contract policing for municipalities in Canada.
Mr. Farnworth also announced the appointment of Jessica McDonald, the former chief executive of BC Hydro who was let go when the NDP came into power, as a strategic implementation adviser to guide the transition over what is expected to be another two or three years. As well, he said he will introduce legislation in the fall so that a situation like Surrey’s never happens again.
The announcement produced the expected reactions in what has become a highly polarized fight that has focused more on how much each option will cost and which party or politician is being the most obstructive than on the advantages or disadvantages of each policing model.
Ms. Locke called the decision “disappointing, misguided and based on inaccurate assumptions” in a statement released shortly after Mr. Farnworth’s announcement. She also said she believed his staff had misinterpreted his legal power to overrule the city, but stopped short of saying the city would take legal action.
She said she will consider all options after talking with her own council members and the minister.
Some business groups expressed concern about the high taxes that may result from going with a municipal force.
On the other side, former mayor Doug McCallum held his own news conference exulting in the decision to move forward with the Surrey municipal force.
“This is a historic decision. It’s really exciting to see what we achieved from four years ago,” said Mr. McCallum, who lined up with all the members of his political party to express his satisfaction.
Mr. Farnworth insisted multiple times that there is nothing wrong with RCMP policing, but that staying with the Mounties would mean destabilizing both Surrey and many other B.C. cities. “This will prevent a crisis of policing in Surrey.”
Mr. Farnworth said the city’s recent report did not provide him with evidence that staying with the RCMP would be the best option.
He said a review of the city’s plan indicated that newly hired officers at the Surrey Police Service could bail out rapidly, leaving the city short by hundreds, while the RCMP seemed to be relying on taking officers from elsewhere in B.C. to hire the 182 officers it is down at this point in the transition.
There aren’t a lot of details available to the public on the arguments about recruitment or costs, because both the city and province have produced reports with that information kept secret, with each side demanding the other sign non-disclosure agreements.
B.C. has more RCMP officers than any other province and has been experiencing extreme shortages, with 1,500 unfilled positions from short- and long-term vacancies. The training facility is expected to produce 638 new officers this year, but there are 834 officers retiring or leaving at the same time.
The Surrey Police Service is now the second-largest force in the province, with about 400 officers hired of the 734 the city has approved as its authorized strength.
The move to a new municipal force has been a major community debate, ever since Mr. McCallum campaigned on the promise to transition away from the RCMP.
Although public opinion was somewhat in favour of the change at the beginning, it waned over the next four years, as Mr. McCallum was perceived as pushing things forward without consultation and as the National Police Federation, the union representing RCMP officers, poured money into a campaign to hold a referendum on the issue.
Mr. McCallum lost his job as mayor last October, when Ms. Locke, a former member of his party, ran on a platform that was almost exclusively focused on staying with the RCMP. Ms. Locke received about 28 per cent of the total vote, with Mr. McCallum in second place.
Ms. Locke and her party carried a 5-4 vote in November to stick with the RCMP. She has been lobbying in public since then to convince the province to agree with her council’s decision.
Along the way, the mayor has called the Solicitor-General a bully and a misogynist who is trying to force the city into a bad decision.
Mr. Farnworth said the province will honour its promise made three months ago that it will cover $150-million of extra costs the Surrey Police Service transition is expected to incur.
Surrey mayor declined meetings with Surrey Police while reinstating RCMP
The B.C. RCMP, in a statement, acknowledged Mr. Farnworth’s move and said the force will work to make the transition a smooth one.
”Our focus since the very beginning of the transition has been to ensure that public safety is not compromised. That focus will not change,” said Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald, who serves as the commanding officer of the B.C. RCMP. “Moving forward the stability in the delivery of police services and the retention of our members will be at the forefront of all planning.”