Nearly 100 members of Surrey’s fledgling municipal police force are expected to join the local RCMP detachment as the Metro Vancouver city’s police transition is conducted in the limelight, a municipal report suggests.
A update on the RCMP’s re-staffing efforts presented to mayor and council Monday night indicates 15 Surrey Police Service (SPS) members have been hired as Mounties or have started their move. Eighty-one have further expressed interest in switching to the Surrey RCMP, it states.
The numbers appear to counter the results of a Surrey Police Union survey last November, which found that if the SPS were stopped from becoming Surrey’s police of jurisdiction, more than 90 per cent of members had “no intention to apply to nor join any RCMP detachment” as their next career move.
“The Surrey Police Union is confused as to where these numbers are coming from,” union spokesperson Ryan Buhrig said Tuesday, in response to Monday’s presentation to council.
“We’ve heard overwhelmingly by our members that they’re not interested in joining the Surrey RCMP for a variety of reasons.”
Buhrig said the union stands by its November survey. Global News has reached out to Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke for comment.
Locke and her majority on council have doubled and tripled down on their election pledge to keep the RCMP as Surrey’s police of jurisdiction, reversing a transition to a new municipal police force that began under the leadership of former mayor Doug McCallum.
Provincial Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth has opposed this plan, citing concerns with a provincewide RCMP staffing shortage that could be exacerbated — creating safety concerns — if Surrey begins to rehire or recruit Mounties to replenish its local detachment.
Farnworth recently received a report from the City of Surrey outlining its plan to meet several mandatory conditions around staffing, recruiting and costs that come with its decision to keep the RCMP.
Premier David Eby said Tuesday the ministry is still reviewing that document and he expects a response from the department “as soon as possible.”
“I’ve reviewed those materials myself as well. I’ve entered into the non-disclosure agreement to be able to do that so I can’t speak about what they presented,” Eby said from a premiers’ meeting in Winnipeg.
“I think the people of Surrey are tired of the issue of policing dominating the discussion in the fastest-growing city that has huge needs around housing, infrastructure and other pieces of work to do with the province. Certainly I feel a fatigue as well and we’re looking forward to a resolution of this issue with the City of Surrey.”
The update on RCMP staffing comes from the “RCMP’s own information” approved for public release, according to city staff.
“Absolutely, in my opinion, we can do it” while meeting provincial conditions, Assistant Commissioner Brian Edwards, officer in charge of the Surrey RCMP, said of the replenishment of the detachment on Monday night.
Addressing union doubts about the number of SPS officers who are interested in joining the RCMP, Edwards said he has the names of all 81 members and he believes that list is “valid” and “confirmed.”
Edwards said the RCMP has met with the Ministry of Public Safety to discuss how it can meet the province’s binding conditions.
“Substantial progress” has been made on some elements, including the appointment of two RCMP resources staff to support the project. One requirement, however — the provision of individualized human resources plans for SPS members — falls outside city jurisdiction, the report states.
City staff maintain that if Surrey reverses course and allows the SPS to become the police of jurisdiction, it would cost close to upwards to $40 million more per year than keeping the RCMP, requiring tax increases in the double digits. Farnworth has offered provincial funding in the realm of $150 million in support if Surrey follows his recommendation to embrace the SPS.
Surrey councillors Linda Annis and Doug Elford called for the RCMP progress report to be deferred until Farnworth responds to Surrey’s efforts to meet provincial conditions for keeping the RCMP.
Locke said Annis’ motion to defer was “out of order” because the decision has been made to keep the RCMP and all the report provides is an update.
“It is about moving forward with the conditions that were put before us and I have had that conversation with the solicitor general. We understand where both parties are,” Locke said.
Meanwhile, the Surrey Police Union has launched an online campaign that sends Locke a number of personal SPS anecdotes that either prop up the SPS or raise workplace issues with the RCMP. It also released a statement last week stating that not a single SPS officer has joined the Surrey RCMP.
Eby said the entire debacle has “not been great for Surrey, to put it lightly.”
“Having resolution on this, being able to move forward so those wounds can heal and we can move on, is critically important for the City of Surrey, the people of Surrey, and for the provincial government,” he said.
“Because there are many, many issues for us to deal with together.”
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