Province wants officer numbers before making decision on Surrey police transition

The three main stakeholders in Surrey’s police transition have more homework to do.

B.C. Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said the City of Surrey, Surrey RCMP and Surrey Police Service need to provide more information before the provincial government can decide which of the two police forces should oversee law and order in the province’s second most-populous municipality.

“The director of police services has determined that additional information is required to inform further consideration of the matter and has made a request to the parties for that information,” Farnworth said at a news conference Thursday afternoon.

The transition to a municipal force, initiated by former Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum, is already well underway, with nearly 400 officers and civilian employees hired and more than $100 million spent. Current Mayor Brenda Locke ran her election campaign on a promise to halt the transition and retain the RCMP. The decision will ultimately be made by Farnworth, based on guidance from the director of police services, with public safety and “the stability of policing in B.C.” as his driving principle.

“The policing transition in Surrey is unprecedented and complex and requires a full and in-depth analysis,” he said Thursday. “This is probably the largest and most complex transition in terms of policing that we’ve seen in the country.”

Farnworth asked all three stakeholder for more information. From the city, he wants details on how SPS would be “demobilized” should RCMP be retained, as well as the projected number of RCMP members required to re-staff the Surrey detachment.

The latter request was also made of the RCMP. In addition, the Mounties were asked to provide details on current vacancies and anticipated growth of B.C. RCMP, as well as “mitigation strategies for re-staffing the Surrey RCMP detachment should targets not be achieved.” As SPS officers have been deployed, the RCMP has reduced the number of RCMP officers in Surrey, although it is not clear by how many.

Farnworth asked SPS to clarify the department’s anticipated strength once fully operational and “mitigation strategies for remaining areas of work toward becoming police of jurisdiction.”

It is unclear if the number of RCMP members required to re-staff and SPS’s anticipated strength once fully operational — both important figures — were not included in previous documents sent to the minister, or if the responses were somehow inadequate.

SPS spokesman Ian MacDonald said the force will continue to work with the province, but did not comment on the request for information.

“We view yesterday as a continuation of the evaluation/deliberation process that should proceed free of politics and rhetoric from interests on either side of the transition,” he said Friday, adding the province has an important decision to make regarding “the future of policing in Surrey with collateral impacts to the rest of B.C.”

Earlier this week, SPS deployed 18 new officers, bringing the total number of SPS officers on the job in Surrey to 205, nearly 30 per cent of the combined municipal-RCMP force.

MacDonald told Postmedia the rollout was part of an agreed-to human resources transition plan between the federal, provincial and municipal governments that remains in place until there is a change in status.

MacDonald said SPS is not actively recruiting with job fairs or advertising while the province makes a decision, although they are still getting a lot of interest and applications.

RCMP assistant commissioner Brian Edwards, head of the Surrey detachment, told Postmedia the RCMP is waiting for the provincial decision before formally opening up applications for experienced officers, but “dozens” of SPS officers have confidentially approached the RCMP indicating a desire to come over if RCMP remains in charge.

In a statement Friday, Brian Sauvé, president of the National Police Federation, which represents RCMP officers, said members are “looking forward to certainty on their future in Surrey.”

The federation has been working with the RCMP to enhance and streamline the recruitment process and has reduced the average application time to under nine months, he said. The process is currently attracting 800 to 900 new applicants to the RCMP each month, which could result in a “record-setting year.”

Responding to Farnworth’s statement Thursday, Locke said the delay in making a decision was unjustified and impacts the city’s ability to complete its budget for 2023.

“The longer two police agencies are operating with this uncertainty, the more taxpayer dollars are being unnecessarily spent,” she said. “The instability needs to come to an end, and a timely response is critical.

“It is natural to want more information as we put our plans into effect. It is a waste of time to continue to do that work prior to the province’s decision. The minister needs to confirm the city has already made the decision.”

Locke said the city had already provided “all the necessary details to demonstrate our ability to maintain the Surrey RCMP and can do so in a more cost-effective and timely way than continuing with SPS.”

In the continuing war of words over costs, Locke has claimed continuing the transition would require a 55 per cent property tax hike in 2023 on increased costs of $235 million over five years. The claim was immediately disputed by her opponents.

Halting the transition to SPS also comes with costs, including the loss of sunk costs and at least $81 million in estimated severance.

In an earlier interview with Postmedia, Hamish Telford, a political scientist at the University of the Fraser Valley, said he couldn’t speak to the veracity of Locke’s tax hike numbers but noted a municipal police force is going to cost more and that may require an increase in property taxes down the line.

The more difficult issue for the city is if the municipal police force is cancelled, the city will have some large immediate payouts, he said.

“And where (the City of Surrey) accesses those resources is not entirely clear to me,” he said.

Telford said the B.C. government faces an extremely difficult decision because there is no consensus on what residents want after a close municipal election that was largely fought on the policing question.

“And that doesn’t give the government a strong indication of which way they should go on this,” he said. “And that really makes it difficult as a policy decision and also makes it difficult as a political decision.”

1. Surrey Police Service deploys another 18 officers as it awaits decision on its future

2. Surrey mayor-elect Brenda Locke starts work to halt transition to municipal police force

— with files by Gordon Hoekstra and David Carrigg

gluymes@postmedia.com

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