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A report by Surrey city staff making the case to stop the transition to a municipal police force and keep the RCMP is expected to be made public today, when the agenda for Monday’s city council meeting is released.
Council will vote on the report on Nov. 28. If they vote in favour of sending the report to the province, it will go to Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth for evaluation.
Before the city can officially stop the transition to the Surrey Police Service (SPS) and revert to the RCMP for policing, the plan must be approved by the province — a process some experts have said could take months, if it happens at all.
Mayor Brenda Locke has said the report will be more fulsome than anything council has seen before.
“I haven’t seen the report yet, so I don’t know exactly what’s going to be in the report, but I do know that the cost implications are absolutely significant,” Locke told CBC’s Kiran Singh.
The Early Edition6:48Surrey mayor sets path for transition back to RCMP
CBC’s Kiran Singh speaks with Brenda Locke about how she will sheppard her city back to the federal police force.
It will cite figures on how many RCMP officers remain in Surrey, compared to the number of SPS officers.
While the transition back to the RCMP needs provincial approval to move forward, it could have huge implications on the 300 people who have been hired by the SPS — and the more-than-half-a-million residents in the city.
The Surrey Police Union has said that 94 per cent of those working for the SPS have no interest in working for the RCMP.
The RCMP has been accused of having a culture of systemic bullying and harassment.
Additionally, the city has spent years, and millions of taxpayer dollars, on the transition.
Ethics commissioner report also expected
Council is also expecting a report on the ethics commissioner role on Monday — the first step in changing how the role works, Locke said.
As part of her mayoral campaign, Locke promised to reinstate the position of ethics commissioner, which was created in 2019 to ensure transparency on city business.
The contract for the job ended in July when council, under former mayor Doug McCallum, directed city staff not to appoint a new commissioner.
Among potential changes to the job is requiring the public posting of resolutions to complaints.
Since 2020, the ethics commissioner’s office has received 71 complaints, 59 of which were resolved and closed, but only two of which were posted publicly on the city’s website.
“We have to improve our ethics commissioner bylaw, so that in my opinion, things are more transparent,” Locke said.
“Moving forward, that will come to the new council to make those decisions.”
She added the commissioner received several complaints from council members about one another — something she believes should be resolved through mediation with the commissioner’s help.
“The commissioner should be doing a lot more [educating] of councillors,” she said.