The B.C. government has unveiled legislation that will force the City of Surrey to complete its transition to a municipal police force.
The proposed amendments to the Police Act also include a suite of measures intended to prevent the chaotic back-and-forth Surrey experienced should other municipalities opt to move away from the RCMP in the future.
Surrey began its transition from the RCMP to a municipal Surrey Police Service (SPS) under its last city council, but Mayor Brenda Locke was elected last year on a pledge to halt the switch. In July, Solicitor General and Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth ordered the city to complete the transition, saying the city had failed to show moving back to the RCMP would be safe and not affect policing in other B.C. communities.
In a media release, B.C.’s Ministry of Public Safety said the new bill will “provide clarity and finality” to Surrey residents by requiring the city to keep the SPS, and giving Farnworth the power to cancel Surrey’s contract with the RCMP.
The legislation will also allow the province to appoint an administrator to take over the Surrey Police Board’s functions and manage the SPS.
“It makes it clear that the Surrey police transition will continue in the City of Surrey, that Surrey must go to a municipal police force,” Farnworth said of the legislation, Monday.
“It also makes it clear in terms of moving forward for other local governments that would like to make a change the process by which they do that and makes it clear that if you were to make a decision to change to another municipal police agency that you are not going back.”
Along with measures directed specifically at Surrey, the new legislation will legally require any municipality that begins a police transition approved by the ministry to complete it.
It will also clarify the power of the B.C. director of police services to give binding directions to parties involved in a transition, and compel municipalities, police and other entities to provide the minister with information needed to assess any transition plan.
Further, it would empower the minister to choose a path forward for any municipality that has newly become responsible for policing services, in exceptional circumstances such as when the community fails to produce an approved transition plan or fails to implement one.
The new legislation comes days after the City of Surrey filed a court motion seeking a judicial review of the province’s directive that it complete its transition to the SPS.
Farnworth declined to comment on the legal action, saying it was up to the City of Surrey and the courts to decide on whether it will proceed.
Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke said the city was still reviewing the proposed legislation, but made it clear she didn’t intend to back down on the issue.
“I’m going to be very clear. The City of Surrey has made a position, we’re not going to be changing that position, so we’ll be reviewing the legislation and see what happens as we move forward,” she said.
According to the city’s petition to the court, the police transition will cost Surrey an additional $464 million over 10 years than keeping the RCMP.
The province has offered the city $150 million to help defray costs.
Locke said that assistance “pales in comparison” to what would be needed to address capital and human resource costs associated with sticking with the SPS.
“This is going to be generational, this is going to be forever. This is going to be for my kids, my grandkids, and we need to make sure we have protected the taxpayer in this city,” she said.
“We would all like to see this done, we would all like to see our policing stabilized in the city of surrey, but it isn’t and that’s the decision of the minister, so we are now in a position where we have to fight for our taxpayer.”
As of September, the Surrey Police Board said the SPS had hired 400 sworn and civilian staff, and deployed more than 200 officers.