The City of Surrey is spending nearly $500,000 on a public education campaign alerting residents to what it describes as the “NDP police transition” and its cost ramifications for local taxpayers.
Each billboard costs between $1,000 and $3,000 for three weeks, according to Mayor Brenda Locke, who said the campaign’s tab “absolutely pales in comparison” to the cost of transitioning from the Surrey RCMP to the Surrey Police Service (SPS), as ordered by the provincial government.
“The public needs to know,” she told Global News. “The cost to the city and to the taxpayers is extraordinary.
“This is unprecedented that a government would impose this kind of cost on a city, this kind of legislation, on a city — on only one city, only on Surrey.”
The billboards state that dismantling the Surrey RCMP in favour of a fully-fledged municipal police force will cost an additional $446 million over the next decade, resulting in a “massive double-digit tax increase” and less money “for schools, health and transit.” They encourage residents to learn more at a website called ndpsurreytax.ca.
That website further states there is “no public safety benefit” to the transition, ordered by Public Safety Minister and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth in July.
Locke said the dollar figures come from the city’s finance department and the campaign will last for “quite a few weeks.” The initiative also includes a social media blitz, a flier mailed to “every household in Surrey” and more.
The SPS was created as a result of action taken by Locke’s mayoral predecessor, who had promised Surrey a municipal police force.
Locke campaigned in October 2022 on a promise to keep the RCMP — a federally-subsidized service. While she initially supported the creation of the SPS as a councillor, she backtracked within two years, citing transparency concerns and the taxpayer burden.
When Farnworth ordered Surrey to proceed with the SPS over the summer, he cited concerns that replenishing the RCMP could tighten resources in places where Mounties are in short supply. He said Surrey failed to prove it could keep the RCMP without compromising safety elsewhere and offered $150 million to support its return to the SPS.
The City of Surrey has since launched a legal challenge in B.C. Supreme Court to halt the transition.
On Tuesday, Farnworth said the decision on the transition is final and work is underway to complete it. The province unveiled legislation that would force the city to move forward with the SPS in October.
“I think it’s unfortunate that the priority for the mayor and for the council seems to be about spending money on advertising campaigns, and/or on legal battles, as opposed to getting on with the transition,” he said.
“I think the people of Surrey want the transition to move forward and they want the mayor and council to stop wasting money in this fashion.”
The cost of maintaining both police departments in Surrey is an estimated $8 million per month. By June 30, year-to-date, the SPS had already cost the municipality $34.5 million in expenditures.
An independent report commissioned by the province found that keeping the SPS would cost Surrey taxpayers about $30 million more per year than keeping the RCMP.
Both the Surrey RCMP and SPS declined to comment on this story, but in a previous interview with Global News, SPS Chief Const. Norm Lipinski said he hopes to complete the transition within two years.
Surrey Coun. Doug Elford, who sits in opposition to Locke’s Surrey Connect majority on council, said he didn’t know about much the “NDP police transition” ad campaign cost, nor the costs of the city’s opposition to the SPS.
“The public deserves to the right to know what the true cost is,” he said, citing Surrey’s legal fees, consulting fees, ad costs, and more.
“This has now become a vanity project of the mayor and it’s important to note to the people that the SPS is here to stay. We need to move forward and not spend all these resources on this campaign, because at this point in time, that money could be used for many other things in this city.”
Locke, however, said she still hears from members of the public every day who tell her to “stick to your guns, Madam Mayor. Don’t back down.”
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