A Surrey city councillor is slamming the municipality’s ultimately unsuccessful legal fight to keep the RCMP as a “huge waste of taxpayer money.”
Opposition Coun. Linda Annis said the final tab for Surrey’s judicial review of the police transition amounted to just under $1.3 million.
The figure does not include an ad campaign against the transition or the cost of hiring policing expert Peter German as a consultant.
“Times are tough and we shouldn’t be wasting our money on these frivolous things that aren’t doing anything good for the city,” Annis said.
On Wednesday, the province and the city signed an agreement finally putting the bitter political dispute to rest.
Under the $250-million deal, the province will give Surrey $30 million per year until 2029 to help cover transition costs, and up to $20 million a year for the following five years to defray Surrey Police Service salary costs if they exceed what Mounties are paid.
It is the same deal the city rejected in April, ahead of its court challenge.
In a media release announcing the deal with the province, Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke said the deal would “help lessen the financial impact of the transition to Surrey.”
Locke was not available for an interview on Thursday due to a death in the family.
“We should have taken the $250M earlier in spring when the province provided it to the city,” Annis said.
“Not only was it the $1.3 million that we have spent in legal costs, but all the time of having two duplicate police forces and the mayor said that costs $8 million a month.”
Surrey Coun. Doug Elford, who backed the transition, said he was “certain” that fighting the province over the transition resulted in higher taxes for residents.
Surrey council approved a 7-per cent property tax hike for 2024.
“It’s a fight we had already lost … now we have to bear the costs of it,” he said.
“We haven’t seen the true costs here, you have to factor in the consultants’ fees, the lobbyists’ fees, the costs to the SPS.”
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation said the entire transition process had become a “boondoggle for taxpayers since day one.”
“The money that went towards this transition should have gone towards keeping streets safe, it shouldn’t go to lawyers and lobbyists which is exactly what happened,” federation B.C. director Carson Binda said.
Binda said the exercise was an example of why the province should reappoint its auditor general for local governance, a position eliminated by the NDP government.
Speaking with Global News Morning BC on Thursday, B.C. Solicitor General Mike Farnworth said it was time to put the battle over Surrey policing in the rear-view mirror.
“It’s the largest police transition in the history of this province, indeed in this country, and it is going through a lot of uncharted territory,” Farnworth said.
“Is it frustrating at times? Absolutely, for the province, for the city and for the hard-working men and women in the Surrey Police Service and the RCMP, and what’s important is that Surrey is at the table and we’re moving forward.”
The SPS is slated to become Surrey’s police of jurisdiction in just over five months, on Nov. 29.
The force currently employs 431 sworn officers and staff and expects to have hired 526 officers by the end of the year, with a target of 2026 to complete the transition.
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