Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke says the provincial government has kept city hall out of the loop when ministry staff asked their federal counterparts to extend the RCMP's presence in Surrey for a third year to provide temporary transitional support to the Surrey Police Service.
The Surrey RCMP was replaced by the SPS as the city's police of jurisdiction on Nov. 29, 2024 but is still helping to police Surrey as the BC RCMP Surrey Provincial Operations Support Unit as the SPS builds up its ranks, with the transition expected to be completed in 2026/27.
"We are concerned that the Province has taken this step without first consulting with the City, thereby denying us the opportunity to provide input," Locke wrote in a letter to Public Safety Minister Garry Begg, NDP MLA for Surrey-Guildford, on June 19.
"This decision to act unilaterally and apparent willingness to exclude the City from involvement is troubling, given the Province鈥檚 stated
expectation that the City is responsible for, and so must pay for, the financial consequences of Provincial decisions," Locke wrote Begg.
In her letter, Locke told Begg "the evident need to revisit this territory is disappointing.
"In any event, and specifically regarding the RCMP鈥檚 potential presence in Surrey for an additional year, we request that the Province does not enter into any agreement without involving the City first," she wrote, adding "at minimum" the City of Surrey should be consulted on the terms of "any such agreement, including the number of RCMP police officers to be stationed in Surrey."
She also noted that since January council has that senior representatives of the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General appear before council in public "to provide an update on provincial public safety plans for our community" but city hall has not received commitment as requested.
"The lack of response is especially concerning given the urgent public safety issues in Surrey that we are confronting," Locke added. There is one more regular council meeting, on July 28, before the summer break. The next meeting after that is scheduled for Sept. 15.
Locke the Now-Leader on July 16 that Begg has not responded to her letter.
Begg could not be reached for comment. On July 17 Premier David Eby of his post and re-assigned him to be parliamentary secretary for Surrey infrastructure.
Nina Krieger is B.C.'s new minister of public safety and solicitor general.
"I'm sure the new minister will get all the previous minister's information so I would assume that anyway," Locke said July 17, asked if she'll be sending a similar letter to Krieger.
"We'll see how that goes moving forward. We will work with her and make sure she's up to speed about Surrey. I checked a little bit about her bio and she's from Victoria area, so it's important that she understands Surrey, not only the transition but just what's happening on the ground here in Surrey so I will be hopefully having a chance to talk to her very soon because the pressures on our city are tremendous and I think she needs to know where we're coming from as a city."
Meantime, Locke says Begg's new job "just shows" the NDP government has "finally got the message that Surrey's infrastructure is something that has to be at a priority, high attention, so I was glad to see that. Garry Begg knows about Surrey, even though he doesn't live here he knows about Surrey."
