The B.C. government has approved a transition report for Surrey to move to a municipal police force, but there are questions over whether the targeted April 1, 2021 launch date can be hit.
Surrey mayor Doug McCallum was elected in 2018 in part on a promise to ditch the RCMP and move to a Surrey Police Department.
“Our target date to be up and running in April 1, 2021. Our city has already asked the province to set up the police board. That process has already started,” McCallum said.
“This is day 1 of the Surrey Police Force. The people of the city wanted ambitious.”
The process will now begin to hire a police board and then a police chief. Once the management teams are in place they will begin recruiting officers.
Former attorney general Wally Oppal chaired the committee looking into the transition. On Wednesday he said the spring 2021 goal was too ambitious.
“All that takes time. You want to make sure that whatever is done is done the right way and correctly and according to standards,” he said.
“I’d say you’re probably looking at a good two years.”
Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth says he is hoping to release the report to the public on March 10.
Farnworth says there is a path laid out in that report to have the new police force in place by April 2021.
“What is going to guide that process is ensuring that each of the steps that are required to be completed and in fact completed,” Farnworth said.
“The key priority is going to be public safety.”
There were concerns raised last August when Surrey originally presented a transition report and Farnworth is now confident that the key aspects of the transition plan that required more detail have been thoroughly considered.
The police board will consist of the mayor, one councillor and five members of the public. The provincial government will select the five local police board members.
The board is responsible for hiring police and civilian employees, providing financial oversight for the police department and managing service and policy complaints against the department.
Both the province and McCallum have acknowledge the transition is complex and there is a commitment to co-operation and collaboration with Public Safety Canada and the RCMP.
“The city of Surrey has put in a five year transition cost,” Farnworth said.
In 2018, the City of Surrey initiated termination of its agreement with the RCMP and the transition to a municipal police force, in accordance with its powers under the Police Act.
“This is the guarantee that we will finally have our own police force,” McCallum.
On the issue of where the Surrey Police force will be based, McCallum says his preference is for it to stay at the current RCMP detachment near the Surrey courthouse.
“It has all factors I would like to see in a detachment,” McCallum said.
The 450-page report has details on how to deal with pensions and collective agreements. Pensions will be transferred between the RCMP and the Surrey Police Force.
There is close contact between the two forces and are working out these details now.
Surrey police will remain as part of integrated teams for now, including the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT), with the board and new police chief ultimately determining long-term involvement.
“We have made tremendous progress from the time the minister made the announcement to where we are today,” Opall said.
RCMP Assistant Commissioner Brian Edwards says the Mounties respect that every municipality has the right to choose what type of police force they want for their city.
“But that is not to say this is not difficult for us,” Edwards said.
“Given the nature of the work we do in the community, we are heavily invested in Surrey and its residents. This situation is discouraging for our members who enjoy policing this community and, in particular, for those who live in Surrey and raise their families here.”