Chair of police transition committee disputes Surrey mayor’s timeline for final report

The former judge and B.C. attorney general heading up the Surrey policing transition committee is publicly disputing the city mayor’s latest timeline for the work to be completed.

Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum told reporters earlier this week that the joint provincial-municipal committee would have its key report ready for Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth by next Wednesday.

But Wally Oppal, who was appointed to chair the committee in August, says that’s not true.

“There’s nothing wrong with having ambitious timelines, but I can tell you that the report we’re doing will not be ready on the 11th of December,” said Oppal.

“We haven’t even met this week because there are people away. We’ll be meeting again next week.”

Oppal said he couldn’t put a date on when the report would be ready, but that it “won’t be that long.”

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Oppal said the committee had been hard at work, but that the process is complex.

3:55 Province takes control of Surrey police transition

He said members were still working on developing a police board, which would be tasked with selecting a chief, who would, in turn, be involved in recruitment.

He said plans also need to be in place to train those recruits and for a union to be formed to bargain for officers’ contract.

“This is a very complicated area. Keep in mind, the RCMP have been in Surrey since 1950 — you just can’t replace them overnight,” said Oppal, adding that it would likely be two to three years before the new force was actually patrolling the streets.

The transition to a Surrey police department has grown increasingly politicized.

Earlier this week, Fleetwood-Port Kells MP Ken Hardie said Surrey residents don’t have enough information on the transition and called for a referendum on the process.

“I don’t believe mayor and council have a mandate to do what they’re doing, especially because what’s emerging is the costs both in terms of the service itself and what we’ve having to forgo to make that a reality,” said Hardie.

Surrey Coun. Doug Elford renewed his call for a civic force this week, arguing a recent break-in at his home shows the crime situation in the city is getting out of control.

-With files from Janet Brown