Premier keeping quiet on how much money is on offer to push Surrey policing transition forward

Premier David Eby is staying silent on how much more money he’s put on the table to move ahead with the Surrey policing transition.

The province has already offered the City of Surrey $150 million to help with transition costs, but yesterday it emerged that there’s a new offer with new funding on the table.

But he won’t say how much, except to say that the figure of $110 million, suggested by the BC Conservatives in Question Period yesterday, isn’t correct.

Province of B.C. says there is 'new offer on the table' for Surrey Police transition

The B.C. government is looking to sweeten the deal to get the Surrey police transition done once and for all. Kier Junos has the latest.

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Eby said last year his government had no more money to give the transition. When asked why he’s changed his mind now, he says people just want this to be over with.

“The people of Surrey are sick and tired of the back and forth,” Eby said. “All they want is to call 911, the police are going to show up, they’re going to deal with the bad guy, and we’re all going to move on. “

The police transition has been ongoing since former Mayor Doug McCallum began the switch in 2018.

BC United MLA for Surrey South Elenore Sturko says the lack of transparency in the policing transition has been frustrating from the start.

“There is no problem with coming back to our city in Surrey and trying to negotiate or … trying to find a way forward with our city by helping alleviate some of those costs,” she told CityNews.

“But be transparent. It’s one of the largest issues that many, many people have had with this process in Surrey Policing transition — that they have not received adequate information. We’ve not seen what a plan would be, and no timeline that seems to be reliable.”

Farnworth directed the City of Surrey last July to move forward with the transition from the RCMP to a municipal force. Since that time, Mayor Brenda Locke has put forward legal challenges to try to stop the transition.

Locke hasn’t said much about the new round of talks, but she indicated her legal challenge will forge ahead, with a court date in late April.