Surrey mayor threatens one-off tax hike if SPS transition continues

Surrey taxpayers could face a one-off tax hike if the transition to a municipal police service isn’t stopped, Mayor Brenda Locke says.

In a statement Friday, Locke says the staff report which was handed to council last month showed that a transition to the Surrey Police Service from the RCMP would cost $235 million more than maintaining the RCMP as the police of jurisdiction.

Locke says this funding gap would “create an untenable financial burden for Surrey taxpayers during these challenging economic times.”

“It is also unreasonable to advance the City’s budget process any further without knowing which economic scenario the City will face,” she wrote.

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In addition to a normal tax rate increase, Locke says a one-off 55 per cent increase would be needed to recover the funding gap if the transition continues.

“Given the economic hardship facing Surrey taxpayers if the transition continues and the fact that the City needs to finalize its budget, it is vital that the Province move quickly to endorse Council’s decision to retain the RCMP,” Locke said.

Surrey has been caught up in a policing controversy ever since former mayor Doug McCallum got the process moving to drop the RCMP for a municipal force.

Councillor and SPS respond to Locke’s assertion

Surrey Coun. Linda Annis responded to Locke’s statement Friday, saying the 55 per cent increase is “a scare tactic that continues to muddy the waters and reinforces the need for real, independent financial numbers around the choice of police services.”

Annis says there should be an independent assessment of the financial situation around the transition, adding that the city identified 40 different assumptions when preparing its report on the cost of the transition.

“That’s a ridiculous number of assumptions and begs the question, just how much of the financial report can we take seriously, and that applies to the mayor’s 55 per cent tax increase statement,” she said. “We have numbers from the SPS, the RCMP, and the city, and these multiple versions continue to leave Surrey taxpayers on the sideline and in the dark about the real facts.

“As a result, this statement from the mayor about a 55 per cent tax increase adds even more confusion and doubt, and really feels like a last-ditch effort to scare Surrey voters, rather than inform them with the real financial facts and figures.”

The province will decide which police force will have jurisdiction over Surrey, however, a date for that announcement is yet to be set.

Meanwhile, Chief Const. Norm Lipinski says Locke’s assertion that taxpayers will face a 55 per cent increase if the province approves the transition is “not only inaccurate, but intended to confuse residents and business owners.”

Like Annis, Lipinski also points to the assumptions made in the city’s report, saying it was inflated, and included a nine-month pause to the transition which has not been “previously contemplated” by any party.

“I am deeply concerned that Mayor Locke continues to use financial assumptions to inflate the cost of Surrey’s transition to a municipal police service. The costs to terminate the transition and almost 400 employees (estimated at over $200M including sunk costs) are also not mentioned in the Mayor’s statement.

“Accurate costs and information on Surrey’s policing transition are important, but they are not the only factor to consider; adequate and effective policing in Surrey and throughout the province are also critical,” Lipinski said.