The mayor of Surrey has announced that if the city continues with the transition to a municipal police force, property taxes for families will increase dramatically.
New Surrey mayor Brenda Locke told Global News she believes property taxes will increase on average $1,200 per household if the city transitions to the Surrey Police Service.
“A staff report presented to Surrey city council last month sheds light on the immense cost of the police transition in Surrey,” Locke said in a release.
“According to that report, the costs for the Surrey Police Service are estimated to be $235 million more than maintaining the RCMP as Surrey’s Police of Jurisdiction over the next five years. To recover this funding gap in the upcoming year a one-time tax increase of 55 per cent would be required, in addition to the normal tax rate set by council.”
Locke, who has publicly advocated to keep the RCMP in Surrey as part of her mayoral campaign, believes the transition is not in the best interest of the city, as costs will significantly impact residents.
“It is abundantly clear that a switch to the Surrey Police Service would create an untenable financial burden for Surrey taxpayers during these challenging economic times,” she said.
“It is also unreasonable to advance the city’s budget process without knowing which economic scenario the city will face.”
Locke also is calling for support from the province to back Surrey council’s decision to retain the RCMP.
“Given the economic hardship facing Surrey taxpayers if the transition continues and the fact that the city needs to finalize its budget, it is vital that the Province move quickly to endorse Council’s decision to retain the RCMP,” Locke said.
The chief constable for the Surrey Police Service, Norm Lipinski, issued a statement in response to the mayor’s comments.
Lipinski believes the mayor’s comments are inaccurate and will confuse residents and business owners.
“Mayor Locke issued a public statement that suggests Surrey residents will face a one-time 55 per cent tax increase if the province approves the continuation of the policing transition,” Lipinski said.
“I believe this assertion is not only inaccurate, but intended to confuse residents and business owners.”
Lipinski said the numbers Locke uses are inaccurate due to assumptions, including a nine-month pause in the transition — something he says is inconsistent with previous discussions with all three levels of government.
“These assumptions included a nine-month pause in the transition, which has not been previously contemplated by any party, and an assertion that the transition would take another five years, which is also inconsistent with previous discussions with the three levels of government,” Lipinski said in a release.
“It is also unclear why a municipality would ask its residents to pay for costs that would be incurred over a five-year period, in just one year.”
He continued, “I am deeply concerned that Mayor Locke continues to use financial assumptions to inflate the cost of Surrey’s transition to a municipal police service. The costs to terminate the transition and almost 400 employees (estimated at over $200M including sunk costs) are also not mentioned in the mayor’s statement.”
Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth will have the final say on reversing the transition from the RCMP to a municipal force, which is expected to be announced sometime in 2023.