Minister of Public Safety Mike Farnworth speaks during a news conference, in Vancouver, on April 11, 2022.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
The British Columbia government will hand down its decision on which force will police the city of Surrey before spring, but the public safety minister says no matter what the answer, local taxpayers will fund the changes.
Mike Farnworth said Tuesday he expects a decision from his ministry on either returning to the RCMP or staying with the Surrey police transition before property tax notices are mailed to residents in late May or early June.
He said it will be up to the city to pay any costs associated with the process.
“Let me be really clear, Surrey made the decision (that it) wants to go back to policing and those are their costs and they have said that they’re their costs,” he said at the legislature.
“I want this resolved as quickly as possible. I fully expect that we will have a resolution before property tax notices go out.”
Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke tabled the city’s draft five-year budget last week forecasting a 17.5 per cent property tax increase for this year, with 9.5 per cent of that going toward the police transition.
Ms. Locke was elected last fall on a promise to transition Surrey back to the RCMP after the former city council began the transition to an independent police service.
The B.C. government approved the first transition to the police service and must do the same for the move back to the RCMP, in a decision that Farnworth has said is to ensure that there is a safe plan for effective policing throughout the region, not just Surrey.
“What has to happen is there is a proper plan in place that you transition back to the RCMP if that’s what they want to do,” said Mr. Farnworth. “That has to be properly analyzed and scrutinized.”
The minister had previously promised a decision in January on the transition, but said more information was needed about gaps in reports from the city, the RCMP and the Surrey Police Service.
Mr. Farnworth said his ministry received the city’s response to its questions late Thursday and will be reviewing their report.
“This is not just a box-ticking exercise,” he said. “This is about ensuring a transition that keeps the Surrey community safe with effective and adequate policing.”
Surrey’s municipal police chief called for an independent audit of the city’s cost estimates related to a policing transition on Monday, saying he’s concerned they’ve been “inflated and mischaracterized” to target the fledgling force.
Chief Const. Norm Lipinski said he’s worried the city is depicting its numbers in a way that calls into question the viability of the Surrey Police Service.