Statement from the Mayor: Policing Budgets

On April 25, 2024, the Province amended the Police Act to include a new section (Section 27, subsection 3.1), requiring any municipality to notify a municipal police board and the Director of Police Services by May 15 to object to any aspect of a budget proposed by a municipal police board.

Today, the City of Surrey has informed the Director of Police Services and the provincially appointed Administrator of the Surrey Police Board that it is upholding its approved budget and that Surrey taxpayers will not be on the hook for additional policing costs related to having two overlapping forces. Otherwise, if City Council were to approve SPS and RCMP’s proposed budgets, we would be looking at an additional cost of more than $37M. This would double the approved 2024 property tax increase of 7% to more than 14%.

On May 6, 2024, the City of Surrey approved a policing operations budget of $221.6 million, which will fund in excess of a combined sworn member strength of 785 members.

Our goal has always been to protect taxpayers and public safety, and our approach ensures that Surrey taxpayers will not be responsible for covering the out-of-control costs of the NDP’s imposed police transition.

In 2023, Surrey Police Service dramatically overspent their budget, going 45% over what they were approved to spend. The City cannot afford to pay for two overlapping police services just because the NDP continue to have no plan for this transition.

The extraordinary step that the City of Surrey has taken today was done to comply with a rushed amendment by the Province to the Police Act passed just days before our recent court proceedings. These changes were made without any consultation with the City, weeks before the new imposed deadline, and have serious implications for municipal budgets throughout BC.