ALL signs point to Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth announcing that the City of Surrey’s municipal policing transition will continue, with the Surrey Police Service steadily replacing the RCMP.

Premier David Eby seemed to deliver a loud and clear message when he said at the premiers’ meeting in Winnipeg: “We have [RCMP] officers that have to work extended shifts, that are increasingly strained and stressed and then going off on leave, making the problem worse. We don’t see a clear path from the federal government about filling those vacancies.

“We have the largest RCMP contracted force in Canada. There is a clear direction from the Prime Minister to his public safety minister to start the conversation with premiers. The contract as a whole is up in the early 2030’s and we need to know which direction the federal government is going with contract policing because the current situation is NOT SUSTAINABLE for British Columbia.” (Capitalization ours for emphasis.)

Meanwhile, the media are reporting that RCMP figures given to the provinces indicate that at least 200 more RCMP officers are retiring or quitting the force each year compared to those graduating from the RCMP Depot.

In 2022-2023, 898 Mounties retired or quit as compared to 623 RCMP Depot graduates.

The projection for 2023-2024 shows that 842 RCMP officers will leave as compared to 638 RCMP Depot graduates.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what’s in store for the RCMP in Surrey.

The fact is that the NDP is very politically secure in Surrey; in fact, in the last provincial election it picked up one seat because the BC Liberals (now the BC United) made ‘keeping the RCMP in Surrey’ the main issue here.

This time, the BC United Leader, Kevin Falcon, has forcefully expressed his support for a municipal police force for Surrey.

The South Asian community — that forms the vast majority of the more than 67 per cent of the City’s non-white population — is solidly backing the Surrey Police Service (with the only ones supporting the RCMP being relatives or friends of the few South Asian Mounties in Surrey).

The writing on the wall is LOUD AND CLEAR.