Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth speaks during a news conference in the press theatre at legislature in Victoria on April 28.CHAD HIPOLITO/The Canadian Press
The chaotic saga in B.C.’s second-largest city over choosing a police force entered a new chapter this week, as Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke said council had voted privately Thursday to stay with the RCMP in spite of provincial urging to continue a transition to a municipal force.
“Surrey needs a final answer on policing and Surrey council has decided, with a vote held yesterday, to retain the RCMP as our police force of jurisdiction,” she said, acknowledging that “the controlled dissolution of the Surrey Police Service will be challenging.”
She said she hoped everyone could work co-operatively to bring normalcy back.
However, B.C. Solicitor-General Mike Farnworth almost immediately responded that there is no final decision yet.
He said that although cities have the right to choose the policing they want, the province has to ensure that they have a functional plan.
He said his staff will review the 400-page staff report, which councillors received Wednesday night before voting in a closed meeting Thursday, to ensure that the city and RCMP are capable of meeting a number of conditions he had set out weeks ago to ensure good policing.
“I must be satisfied that the City of Surrey’s plan will ensure effective and adequate policing is maintained in Surrey and throughout the province.”
Surrey’s erratic zigzagging on the issue, which started in 2018 when Doug McCallum swept to office as mayor with a promise to create the new force, is being closely watched across the country.
Several jurisdictions have talked about opting out of the RCMP and creating new provincial or regional forces, especially as the force has come under fire for both its handling of internal issues and its response to major criminal events, such as the mass shooting in Nova Scotia in 2020.
Surrey, with a population of about 520,000, is the largest city in Canada policed by the RCMP and is seen as a potential first domino.
The union representing RCMP officers has put a considerable amount of money into Surrey residents’ campaigns to stop the transition.
Mr. Farnworth had spelled out April 28 that the province’s position on continuing the transition to a municipal force was the best option and that the government would only allow Surrey to continue with the RCMP if it met certain conditions.
The most important among them was that the RCMP, which would need to hire about 350 new officers to replace those who had been transferred out as the Surrey Police Service was coming on stream, not poach police from other RCMP jurisdictions, particularly rural communities. The province committed $230-million last November for more police in rural areas.
If the province decides the city’s plan respects those requirements and allows Surrey to keep the RCMP, it means the city will not get a promised chunk of money, up to $150-million, that Mr. Farnworth said would be available to help continue with the transition to the Surrey Police Service.
And it means that the city will be on the hook for severance pay for the 350 or so officers already hired by the new municipal force.
Ms. Locke declined Thursday to say how much that is likely to cost – previous reports have cited numbers such as $72-million and $85-million – but she acknowledged it will be in the millions.
The mayor also would not say how councillors had voted, saying she couldn’t do so because of the non-disclosure agreement signed in order to look at the province’s analysis of which police service they should use.
But Mr. Farnworth said the non-disclosure agreement didn’t require that and the secrecy around the vote was a Surrey council choice.
In a previous vote, in October, shortly after Ms. Locke’s party gained a majority on council, it was a 5-4 split in favour of retaining the RCMP.
Thursday’s events provoked yet another round of strong reactions, with those wanting to keep the RCMP pleased and those in favour of the new force dismayed.
“The KEEP THE RCMP IN SURREY CAMPAIGN is thrilled to announce the triumph of righteousness,” said campaign founder Ivan Scott in a news release. “The Surrey Detachment of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police will continue as of today as the esteemed police force of jurisdiction in Surrey, much to our delight.”
But opposition councillors expressed deep reservations about the way the vote was conducted.
“I am very troubled by the fact that we received an over 400-page report the night before we were to debate. Nobody but nobody can digest 400 pages and come to a really good decision,” said Surrey First Councillor Linda Annis. “I’m extremely concerned about how this whole process went down.”