Mayor’s Statement: Proposed SPS Budget

The budget that Mr. Serr put out today is the same one brought to the City of Surrey in November of last year. There is nothing new here and the fact is nothing has changed on our end. The City of Surrey’s 2024 budget is being worked on by our Finance staff. Until that is done, and only once that is done, will we know what effect the SPS budget will have on the property tax rate.

The Solicitor General and Mr. Serr stated today that the transition can go forward over the next three years without the Surrey taxpayers being forced to pay more. To suggest such a thing is not only disingenuous but reveals the continued lack of knowledge and due diligence on the part of the NDP government when it comes to the financial ramifications of this transition to Surrey. The province has already estimated that the switch to the SPS will cost a minimum of $30M extra per year. Unless the province plans to fund 100% of all of the SPS’s extra costs, not just for three years but beyond, any shortfall will fall on the backs of Surrey residents and businesses.

We are five years into this transition, which was supposed to be completed by April 1, 2021, and the SPS current staffing levels are only at 25%. The SPS plan is to have enough funds to hire 180 officers in 2024. That’s an unrealistic goal when you consider it is like trying to hire enough officers to staff an entire police department the size of Delta Police.

Surrey City Council cares about the financial burden this transition will place on the taxpayers of Surrey. We will be putting together the 2024 Budget with their bests interests in mind and will be engaging in further public consultation in the coming weeks.