Surrey allegedly blocking new SPS hires’ pay, Eby calls move ‘incredibly frustrating’

B.C. Premier David Eby did not mince words Thursday morning when responding to allegations that the City of Surrey is refusing to pay 10 new Surrey Police Service recruits.

Speaking at an unrelated news conference, Eby says he heard early Thursday there are claims the city told the SPS it can’t add anyone new into the payroll and benefits system.

CityNews has learned that these 10 new recruits are currently going without pay. In the interim, the SPS Union says it will be cutting cheques to the unpaid workers, which will be in their pockets as early as Friday.

Those affected are not just frontline officers, but other civilian positions. Some new recruits have families and some have quit previous jobs to join the new policing force.

Eby slammed the blocking of pay as being “incredibly frustrating.”

“I understand the desire of the mayor to spend taxpayer money on advertising on leaflets on billboards on lawyers to fight this you know, I disagree with it. But you know, that’s her business,” he said, referencing a campaign launched in November claiming the BC NDP is trying to force the City of Surrey to continue the police transition to a municipal force.

Speaking to CityNews, SPS Union spokesperson Ryan Buhrig says the union was told “just before Christmas” that there was “no mechanism” for the new recruits to be paid their salaries or benefits.

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“The Surrey Police Union and the Surrey Police Service work together to ensure that a benefits plan was set up for these recruits and that they receive their first pay check,” he explained. “the Surrey police union district police union is bridging as a temporary measure of providing these recruits their pay until a long term solution can be come up with.”

When asked whether the recruits themselves knew there was a problem with payment, Buhrig says the recruits are “very resilient.”

“All these police officers are aware of the unfortunate political climate around the policing transition. So, these police officers are resilient, and they’re continuing their training step by step,” he said.

While he can’t comment on the legality of the current situation facing the new recruits, Buhrig says he is unaware of any situation in Canada where police officers have gone without paychecks.

“These recruits got hired because they want to serve their community. They want to work with the residents of Surrey, and to have this happen is extremely unfortunate. And it’s frustrating. We understand that the mayor disagrees with the policing transition. But for her to take her frustration out on brand new police recruits is a step too far,” he said.

“Not having paid not having benefits. These are type of things that affect their families. And we needed to make sure that they have those in place.”

Buhrig says if the union did not step in, it would have been “highly problematic” for the recruits.

“I think this is highly reckless on the part of the mayor, especially for recruits not to have medical benefits. It’s difficult to know everybody’s personal family circumstances. And for somebody not to be able to claim medical benefits starting the new job is egregious.”

For now, Buhrig says the union is focusing on organizing a longer-term solution, and that it expects the costs to pay the recruits will be recuperated.

Premier Eby added that “the challenge … is these are folks [who] are willing to go out and do the difficult work of policing communities, and they need to get paid.”

“They’re putting their own personal safety on the line to ensure a safe community Surrey deserves a safe community police officers need to get paid, for Pete’s sake.”

“We will find a way to address this issue, make sure those officers get paid and we will not allow public safety to be compromised for a political campaign,” Eby continued.

CityNews has reached out to Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke for comment.

More to come.

–With files from Sonia Aslam and Srushti Gangdev