The City of Surrey has until 4 p.m. Tuesday to accept funding from the provincial government to offset the costs of its transition to a municipal police force, B.C.’s public safety minister and solicitor general says.
“In January the City of Surrey approached us to negotiate a transition to the Surrey Police Service (SPS) and my ministry officials and officials from the city have been negotiating in good faith and there is an agreement, a deal, on the table for the City of Surrey, which I understand they considered last night, and we’re waiting to hear back from them,” Mike Farnworth said Tuesday.
The province previously pledged $150 million to help offset the costs of switching from the RCMP to the SPS. Despite Premier David Eby saying there was “no more money” forthcoming, it is believed the province has sweetened the deal by as much as $100 million since then.
Farnworth said he could not comment on details of the final offer until the deadline had passed.
Asked why the province had now implemented a firm deadline, Farnworth said, “it’s time to fish or cut bait.”
The minister’s comments came the same day Surrey unveiled its 2024 municipal budget, which projects a 7-per cent property tax increase, worth about $177 to the average single-family home.
That budget, however, is predicated on the city keeping the RCMP. Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke, who campaigned on scrapping the police transition, is currently spearheading a court challenge of the province’s directive that it complete the switch to the SPS.
Locke told reporters Tuesday that the budget includes a set amount for “adequate and effective policing” with a force of 785 officers.
“If we are mandated to continue with the police transition, we are facing an increased cost of a half a billion dollars or more over the next decade, compared to the cost of the RCMP,” she said.
“If we find ourselves in that position, I will be doing an update in the fall on where we are financially. But it does mean … significant dollars to the taxpayer.”
Locke alleged that anticipated costs from the SPS transition had forced council to pause a variety of planned capital projects, including a welcome centre, a pool for Whaley and a redevelopment of the Cloverdale Fairgrounds.
She further suggested taxpayers could face a property tax hike in the ballpark of 12 per cent in 2025 if the transition goes ahead.
The SPS presented its own budget in January, projecting costs of $141.5 million, with a goal of fielding 526 officers by the end of the year.
Surrey Coun. Linda Annis, an opponent of the mayor on the policing file, questioned Locke’s numbers on the transition costs.
“We need to make sure we have real numbers in there. The mayor was saying just over a year ago there was going to be a one-time tax increase of 55 per cent,” she said.
“We know that wasn’t true, we saw the numbers in the SPS budget for 2024, and with the budget they presented there really was no tax increase.”
Annis said the decision on policing has already been made and that residents want officials to “get on with it” and start focusing on the growing city’s other needs.
More to come…
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