- A corporate report was presented to the city council to either maintain RCMP as Police of Jurisdiction or to continue the transition to the Surrey Police Service
- Five City council members voted in favour of keeping the RCMP where as 4 were against it
- Council’s endorsement of this option will have staff prepare a plan that will be forwarded to the Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General upon Council approval.
- SPS will send a separate report on to public safety minister
- The vote also directed Surrey Police Service (SPS) to put a freeze on hiring and spending, where as SPS staff said they won’t stop hiring unless directed by the province
- Any transition plan put forward by the City would be reviewed by the Director of Police Services and Minister of Public Safety Mike Farnworth
- Minister Farnworth in a statement said that the city must put forward a transition plan that deals with all the components of reversing the transition, including addressing human resources issues, the capital plan, and the financial cost of the reversal
- However, all the components mentioned by Farnworth are a bone of contention between SPS and the City council
- Mayor Locke’s best bet in taking care of human resource obligation is that many of the Surrey Police Service officers will work for the RCMP, however, 94% of SPS officers have pledged that they have no intention of working with Surrey RCMP
- Unrecoverable sunk costs are forecasted by Surrey Police Service to be as high as $107M, where as city still needs to crunch the numbers
- SPS has also sighted other inaccuracies in the corporate report in terms of staffing, financial implications etc
- South Asian Truckers have stepped up to endorse Surrey Police Service as the police for the City and requested that the impacted RCMP staff be hired by SPS (read story on Page 3)
- Councillor Linda Annis has voted against keeping the RCMP and called for a referendum that gives Surrey residents the opportunity to decide who will police their city (read story on Page 3)
By Link News Network
SURREY: The ongoing battle over the Surrey police transition between Surrey Police service and the city’s newly elected mayor Brenda Locke has become more complicated and has intensified after Surrey City Council voted to keep the RCMP.
On Monday, council voted 5-4 in maintaining the RCMP as Police of Jurisdiction in Surrey. According to the city, Council’s this vote means the staff will now prepare a transition plan to be forwarded to BC’s Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General.
Locke and councillors Harry Bains, Rob Stutt, Pardeep Kooner and Gordon Hepner voted in favour, while Safe Surrey Coalition councillors Doug Elford and Mandeep Nagra voted against keeping the RCMP as did Surrey First councillors Mike Bose and Linda Annis.
Locke also said that on behalf of Council, staff will be issuing a letter to the Surrey Police Board to pause all new hiring and expenditures pending further Council direction.
The Surrey Police Service however said that it won’t stop hiring unless directed by the province because it remains bound to meet targets outlined in the police transition plan through May 2023.
“Until or unless we hear differently from the Province, SPS has an obligation to continue with the deployments laid out in the plan (and the related hiring to achieve those deployments) in order to maintain public safety in Surrey,” spokesperson Lisa Eason said in an email.
SPS chief Const. Norm Lipinski also told Global News that the police board does not report directly to mayor and council, so the mayor doesn’t have the authority to direct the police department to do any particular thing.
The Surrey Police Service also hit back on the Mayor and the council by sighting inaccuracies in the corporate report that was presented to the council on the day of voting.
“City staff have prepared a report for council’s consideration without the benefit of a briefing by the SPB or SPS, which would have ensured an accurate accounting of all human resource and financial aspects of the issue,” said Melissa Granum, Surrey Police Board.
Granum mentioned that the report inaccurately reflects SPS’s current staffing, citing only the 154 deployed SPS officers, which the reports notes is 21% of the “targeted strength of 734 police officers”. “However, SPS has a total of 315 police officers, which represents 43% of the targeted strength. The additional 161 officers are waiting for deployment (35 at the end of November) and/or working in administrative roles that are required for either the normal functioning of any police agency, or to develop the infrastructure for a new police service,” according to Granum.
According to SPS, the report also fails to highlight a number of significant financial implications for Council’s consideration (see attached financial backgrounder), which include almost $108.3 million in costs incurred to date, as of October 31st and the prospect of a massive severance liability. “Reversing the transition would result in an estimated $188.5 million loss of investment into SPS, which is approximately six months away from being operationally ready to become the police of jurisdiction. Furthermore, our recently completed financial forecast of steady state operations projects a $18.3M cost difference between SPS and the RCMP, which should be considered, for an informed decision. The report also inaccurately attributes the $20.6 million policing budget shortfall to SPS, when the City previously attributed the overage to the RCMP in their Q2 2022 financial corporate report,” Granum said.
While this corporate report presented to the City council is not a final plan on transition. The City staff will put together a plan to re-establish the RCMP as the sole police force in the city that will address staffing and human resource implications. “Tonight’s vote not only affirms my promise to restore Surrey RCMP as Police of Jurisdiction, but it will finally reveal the costs of the transition, which will be made available to the public,” Mayor Locke said.
She also added that the plan to re-establish Surrey RCMP will address a number of key elements, including the following.
· Outline a plan for staffing Surrey RCMP to a full compliment of 734 officers.
· Outline a process to fulfil City HR obligations to impacted civilian staff and any support required for the Board to manage human resources implications for Board employees.
· Prepare planning for future increases for Surrey RCMP members to keep pace with population growth and increased calls for service.
· Prepare a plan to repurpose or otherwise dispose of equipment (vehicles, IT, use of force equipment etc.) and other assets purchased to date.
The plan will be then sent to Mike Farnworth, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General for the final approval.
Farnworth, however, has made it clear in a statement that any plan would be reviewed by the Director of Police Services and himself to ensure adequate and effective policing is maintained in Surrey, and across the province.
He said, “As the Solicitor General, it’s my responsibility to ensure the City of Surrey’s policing plan meets the requirements of the Police Act, and that it continues to provide safe and effective policing.”
“The City of Surrey must now put forward a transition plan that deals with all the components of reversing the transition, including addressing human resources issues, the capital plan, and the financial cost of the reversal. I also expect that the plan would be made public for the citizens of Surrey, so that they are aware of how the process will unfold,” he added.
Staff will now be working diligently on a report as requested by the Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General for final approval. As I have said, the plan will be people-centric, which means no SPS officer or civilian staff will be left behind. Regardless of badge, we all share the common goal of keeping Surrey and its citizens safe.”
It is interesting to note that all the components mentioned by Farnworth that are important to decide the transition like human resources issues, the capital plan, and the financial cost are a bone of contention between SPS and the City council.
