As the legal showdown over the policing transition in Surrey makes its way to the B.C. Supreme Court next week, the continuing clash between Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke and the Province took new twists and turns this week, particularly concerning the costs of the transition.
Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke shared details of an independent report she said shows a municipal police force would cost Surrey taxpayers a whopping $750 million more than the RCMP over just a 10-year period.
“This stunning new estimate blows the City of Surrey’s previous estimates out of the water,” she said.
Her disclosure came just a day after BC’s Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth announced the target date for the Surrey Police Service to assume policing and law enforcement in the City of Surrey. Farnworth said that on November 29, 2024, the Surrey Police Service (SPS) will officially replace the RCMP as the police of jurisdiction.
“The people of Surrey have told us they want this to be over. We agree, and we’re taking action to ensure safety and certainty for people in Surrey,” said Mike Farnworth, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General.
He said that this date was identified after careful consideration of public safety, the progress completed to date and the significant work underway to finalize the transition. This includes identifying and operationalizing transitional supports to be provided by the B.C. RCMP, approving the SPS’s hiring plan and other steps necessary to ensure the SPS will meet the practical and statutory requirements to become Surrey’s police of jurisdiction.
Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke, however, voiced her displeasure with Farnworth’s announcement, calling it “another desperate attempt… to demonstrate progress on the transition, mere days before the matter is heard in court.”
“Aside from setting an aspirational date, nothing else has changed,” said Locke in a statement.
“The reality is that despite several public gestures of transition progress over the last five years, substantial plans for this transition have never been completed. There was no clear path forward then, and there remains no clear path forward now.”
The following day Mayor Locke in a media conference shared the transition cost from what she called a “bombshell” report. The report, by accounting firm Deloitte, was commissioned by the province and completed a year ago. Locke said she received the report as part of the upcoming court proceedings.
“As recently as November 2023, the Solicitor General told media that the report confirmed the Province’s cost estimates. However, submissions from the SPS clearly show plans for an anticipated staffing level of 958 officers shortly after becoming police of jurisdiction, and to move to a two-person vehicle deployment model. This alone would result in an estimated $45 million annual incremental cost over the RCMP, and does not include other transition costs previously estimated by the City.”
Locke said requirements for two Surrey cops per car mean more SPS officers would indeed be needed than RCMP, but still called the data “surreal.”
On the other hand, Solicitor General Mike Farnworth didn’t mince words about Locke’s analysis of the report.
“To put it bluntly, (it’s) ingenuity on a massive scale,” Farnworth told reporters. “It’s absolutely disingenuous, and it’s completely false. If you go back to April 23 of last year, I referenced this report in a technical briefing for the media. It was absolutely clear that we were basing everything on the authorized strength of the RCMP.”
Mayor Locke’s announcement also got a pushback from the Surrey Police Union (SPU). The Union said that Mayor Brenda Locke was misleading the public with one of her claims regarding the two-person car and that a move to a two-person vehicle deployment “would result in an estimated $45 million annual incremental cost over the RCMP.
“Contrary to Mayor Locke’s assertions, the implementation of two-person patrol cars does not increase policing costs. In fact, it represents a strategic move towards increased service delivery for the community,” said Ryan Buhrig, SPU Spokesperson.
The union claimed that two-person vehicle deployment will better apply two officers when necessary to “critical incidents,” which account for 40 per cent of the calls they receive. The SPU said having two officers present can also help deescalate situations and reduce the need for physical intervention.
Buhrig called Mayor Locke assertions on two-person patrol cars costs “misleading”. “It distracts from the fundamental principle that the same number of officers are deployed in either scenario, ensuring two officers arrive at high-risk calls at the same time. In fact, strategic implementation of two-person patrol vehicles enhances service delivery, decreases police use of force, and improves police response times,” he said.
