The Surrey Police Union and Surrey Police Board have slammed Surrey mayor Brenda Locke for spreading misinformation about budget allocations to SPS in 2023. Mayor Locke accused SPS of overspending money beyond the allocated budget. However, the Surrey Police Union representing SPS has asserted that the 2023 policing budget was initially based on the assumption that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) would continue as the police of jurisdiction and SPS would eventually dissolve.
The argument started when recently in a series of media interviews Surrey Police Union revealed that Mayor Locke had excluded 10 new Surrey police recruits from the payroll.
Following this, Mayor Locke issued a media statement and said that SPS assertion about budget deficit is “wrong” stating the new officers were “neither approved nor budgeted for.” Locke, said the SPS budget approved in early 2023 was $48.7 million, but the SPS spent $75.4 million instead.
Her statement triggered a backlash from the Surrey Police Union and the police board, which she chairs. Ryan Buhrig, the spokesperson for the Union, clarified that the 2023 policing budget was formulated under the assumption of the RCMP’s continued jurisdiction, leaving SPS with an incomplete budget covering only half of the fiscal year. Surrey Police Board Administrator Mike Serr backed the Union’s claims. “The facts are that, with Mayor Locke as Chair, the SPS Board submitted a 2023 budget of $157.6M to the City of Surrey. During 2023, on the basis of plans to eliminate the SPS and return to the RCMP, the City reduced this budget to $48.8M for 2023 – a cut of 70%,”
Serr, said, “With the decision by Minister Farnworth in July 2023, and the subsequent amendments to the Police Act that require the transition to be completed, Surrey Police Service officials worked with City officials to arrive at a budget of $75M to carry SPS through to the end of 2023. Continuing her fight to ignore the provincial decision and requirements of the new Police Act, the Mayor refused to provide formal approval of the agreed to budget and is now misrepresenting this as ‘overspending’ in relation to her 70% cut. Regardless of this cut, SPS will close the year under the $75M budget.”
The Surrey Police Union in the press release also said that the City of Surrey’s own 2023 Third Quarter Financial Report identifies a policing surplus of $19 million. “Additionally, $83 million earmarked for severance (should SPS have been dissolved) was allocated for ‘future policing expenses.’ As of the third quarter of 2023, the City of Surrey has a $102 million surplus from the $330 million policing budget, challenging Mayor Locke’s assertions of a policing budget overrun. It is patently unfair of Mayor Locke to grossly underfund SPS and then criticize for running a deficit when the total budgeted amount for policing is in surplus.”
Surrey First Councillor Linda Annis also said that Locke capped the 2023 Surrey Police Service (SPS) budget at $48.75 million based on her decision to stop the transition. “Because council did not move ahead with the revised SPS budget, the third quarter showed the RCMP had a positive variance of some $27 million, while the SPS had a negative variance of $23.4 million. Meanwhile, the total police budget showed a third quarter positive overall variance of nearly $4 million. The fact is that as the budget for the SPS grows, the budget for the RCMP has to be reduced.”
Following this Surrey City manager Rob Costanzo issued a statement confirming that city council approved a Surrey Police Service budget of $48.8 million. “The Surrey Police Board (SPB) administrator claims that SPS officials worked with City officials on an increased budget after the Province purported to direct the City to transition to SPS. This characterization is misleading. In response to inquiries from the City regarding how SPS was tracking relative to its approved budget, SPS later advised the City that its spending was projected to be $75M for 2023 if the status quo was maintained and no new officers were hired. This correspondence did not and could not constitute approval of an increased budget. Surrey Council is the only body legally authorized to review and approve proposed budgets, and SPS chose to spend over and above the approved budget without first obtaining Council’s authorization. The SPB administrator’s claim that Mayor Locke refused “to provide formal approval of the agreed to budget and … misrepresent[ed] this as overspending” is baseless. Only Council approves the budget and SPS has overspent the budgeted amount approved by Council.”
Using SPS recruits in a political fight is a terrible way to treat those men and women who have stepped up to keep our city safe, Annis feels. “Now, the transition is the law, and we need to get on with it, so that we can start working on other important issues that have been ignored over the past five years.”
