Business group calls for Surrey to pause police transition, saying focus should be COVID recovery

SURREY (NEWS 1130) – The Surrey Board of Trade is calling on the city to pause its police transition plan, given the current economic situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The SBoT has been looking over Surrey’s proposed budget and believes the city should be spending money elsewhere.

“Bottom line, the City of Surrey budget needs to be reprioritized to focus on economic recovery,” says Anita Huberman, CEO of the SBoT.

She says the focus should be on trying to “move the city forward,” citing infrastructure investments as a key point.

In addition to infrastructure, Huberman says more money should be put toward hiring additional city staff “to serve our growing city.”

“Their capital investments are very positive and, certainly, they’re working on a fiscal sustainability budget, but they’re borrowing more money. This mayor and council was very critical of debt and borrowing in their first year in office and now they’re borrowing more money in order to pay and maintain fiscal sustainability,” she explains, adding there’s an opportunity to clear up confusion and be more transparent.

Meanwhile, the SBoT also would like to see better support for the RCMP, which is still in charge of policing the city.

“They haven’t received resources in the first two years of this new local government – the new mayor and council,” Huberman says.

“There’s not enough officers on the ground during the transition, even allocated to the RCMP. Public safety is important to business and I think it’s going to be compromised if you’re not giving the resources to the RCMP,” she tells NEWS 1130.

Property taxes in Surrey are proposed to go up 2.9 per cent next year, which is the same amount as in 2020.

-With files from Martin MacMahon