Brenda Locke, Mayor of Surrey, in a statement responded to the Surrey Police Service release of
2024 budget. She called it the same one brought to the City of Surrey in November of last year. She
said, “There is nothing new here and the fact is nothing has changed on our end. The City of Surrey’s
2024 budget is being worked on by our Finance staff. Until that is done, and only once that is done, will
we know what effect the SPS budget will have on the property tax rate.”
She said that Solicitor General Mike Farnworth is suggesting that the transition can go forward over the
next three years without the Surrey taxpayers being forced to pay more. “To suggest such a thing is not
only disingenuous but reveals the continued lack of knowledge and due diligence on the part of the NDP
government when it comes to the financial ramifications of this transition to Surrey. The province has
already estimated that the switch to the SPS will cost a minimum of $30M extra per year. Unless the
Province plans to fund 100% of all of the SPS’s extra costs, not just for three years but beyond, any
shortfall will fall on the backs of Surrey residents and businesses.”
“We are five years into this transition, which was supposed to be completed by April 1, 2021, and the
SPS current staffing levels are only at 25%. The SPS plan is to have enough funds to hire 180 officers in
2024. That’s an unrealistic goal when you consider it is like trying to hire enough officers to staff an
entire police department the size of Delta Police,” she added.
