The following is an urgent public letter to BC Premier David Eby, Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth and the BC NDP government from former Surrey BC Mayor Bob Bose, Darlene Bennett, former Surrey Police Vote Initiative Proponent, and Anita Huberman, Surrey Board of Trade President & CEO.  Please sign on and join us in urging the RCMP be retained as the police service for Surrey, BC.

January 17, 2023

Hon. David Eby

Premier of British Columbia

Dear Premier Eby:

I/we write out of a sense of urgency over the future of policing services in the City of Surrey.

I/we strongly support the retention of the RCMP as the police of jurisdiction in Surrey and putting an end to the current transition to a Surrey Police Service. 

Our reasons are many, clear and critical - and they impact policing well beyond our municipal boundaries, including: 

1.       The enormous additional costs associated with the SPS transition are not sustainable without a devastating tax increase on residents and businesses, and/or drastic cuts in other services essential to a well governed city. 

2.       The October municipal election in Surrey saw a mayor and majority of city councilors elected who support the retention of the RCMP in a vote that was emphatically focused on the policing issue.

3.       The recent Surrey City Council decision to appeal to your Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General to halt the Surrey Police Service transition was based on a credible analysis of the cost implication of continuing with the transition and provides a path forward to retain the RCMP as the police of jurisdiction. 

4.       By comparison, the previous Council decision in 2018 to transition to a municipal police service was made and implemented without a cost-benefit analysis, a feasibility study, a business plan or meaningful public engagement with Surrey citizens.

5.       The RCMP have provided accountable, responsive, and effective policing in Surrey for over 71 years. The relationship between the RCMP, Council and the Community has evolved in terms of governance over the years with the growth of the City.

6.       Surrey Council has voted to re-establish its Public Safety Committee – which the previous Mayor dissolved – and the RCMP will be accountable to both Council and Surrey residents through that committee. Conversely, the Surrey Police Service is accountable only to its Provincial Government-appointed Board, not the locally elected members of Council. 

7.       The negative financial impact of allowing the SPS transition to continue on all other RCMP jurisdiction municipalities, as well as other Metro Vancouver non-RCMP municipalities is significant and will jeopardize policing in multiple locations. Retaining the RCMP and walking back from the transition will restore a measure of stability and normality province wide. 

8.       The Federal Government contribution to policing in Surrey pays for 10% of the operating costs of the RCMP – something that would be lost forever should the RCMP not be retained.  This also underlines the important policing partnership between Surrey, the Province and the Government of Canada.

9.       The Surrey RCMP detachment is the largest in Canada, and as such, is a resource from which others can, and do, draw experience and expertise. Continuing with the SPS transition, will bring an end to that partnership.

10.    Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke is committed to a dialogue both at the National and Provincial level to pursue opportunities for police reform and the delivery of services that can reduce crime through addressing the root causes of crime such as homelessness, poverty, mental illness, drug addiction, systemic racism, and so many others.   

We know from all sources – despite disagreements on precise numbers – that the SPS transition will cost Surrey taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in just the short term, and many more hundreds of millions going forward into future years.  

The loss just of the federal government’s 10% operating budget subsidy to Surrey would cost the city easily $200 million or more over the next decade alone.  And as you and your government know, if Surrey or any municipality ends RCMP jurisdiction, that 10% subsidy can never return, even if the RCMP were reinstated later.

We believe that Surrey City and the Council majority are correct in stating that continuing the SPS transition would cost Surrey taxpayers at least $235 million more than retaining the RCMP over the next 5 years.  That extremely negative impact on both residential and business taxpayers is absolutely impossible to condone or even consider.

We also believe that Surrey City Council is the appropriate and only elected body that should make this decision, just as your government previously stated it was when the former city administration decided to change policing.  

We further believe that had the province required Surrey to provide a comprehensive feasibility study and business plan prior to the SPS being created, the costs and negative impact would have ended that process before it began.

Now is the time to do the right thing and end the SPS transition, before the costs to taxpayers, negative impact on public safety, crime prevention and other municipalities become disastrous.

This is an unfortunate situation but should not be a difficult decision; the financial and public safety concerns alone should make it clear: the RCMP must be retained in Surrey and the SPS experiment must end now.

We hope and believe you and your government will come to the same conclusion and as soon as possible.

Sincerely yours,

Bob Bose, former Surrey Mayor

Darlene Bennett, former Surrey Police Vote Citizens Initiative Proponent