Mayor’s Statement: Policing Update

At Monday’s Regular Council Meeting, I addressed the next steps on the police transition in Surrey.

While I accept the decision of the judicial review, I do not believe that the provincially mandated transition is in the best interests of the residents and taxpayers of Surrey. The Solicitor General has set Nov. 29, 2024, as the date when the Surrey Police Service will be the police of jurisdiction in Surrey. To be clear, we are in the infancy stages of this transition in terms of planning and confirming proper costing for taxpayers. To ensure there is transparency and checks on spending on this provincially legislated police transition, I have taken the following actions.

A team of experts assembled by our City Manager will work with the province, the federal government, Surrey Police Service/Board and the RCMP to ascertain the progress to date and ensure the best interests of the City are represented at the table.

The judicial review validated the City of Surrey’s concerns surrounding the accuracy of transition costs. What had been long touted as an additional cost of $30 million per year is on the low end. As cited in the province’s Deloitte Report, the added cost is more in the range of $75 million, based on a stated requirement by the Surrey Police Service of at least 900 officers and an additional 58 officers for integrated teams. This critical information only came to light through our recent litigation. I expect the Province will cooperate in good faith with the City of Surrey to determine the actual costs of the transition and for the Province to compensate the City for the added costs.

Since this process began in the fall of 2018, it has been shrouded in a lack of transparency, including the withholding of information by the previous Mayor and Surrey Police Board. Beginning in September, I have instructed city staff to provide updates prior to every regularly scheduled Public Hearing. These sessions, which will include a Corporate Report as well as time for Council to ask questions about the process to date, will be open to the public. 

These immediate actions the City of Surrey is taking will go a long way to finally providing transparency and clarity on what this transition means for the future of policing in Surrey. City Council will work over the summer to ensure that this process is expedited, and I expect that the Province, the Surrey Police Service executive and the Surrey Police Board will do likewise.