THE NDP noted on Monday that after years of recognizing the legal authority of municipalities like Surrey to choose their own police force, B.C. Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson appeared to flip-flop on Sunday by promising to impose a referendum on the issue.
Less than 24 hours later, he has said that the referendum could be “advisory” instead of binding – and he won’t determine that until after the election.
Journalist Mike Smyth: “How would this referendum work? Would this be a binding referendum?”
Wilkinson: “That can be sorted out as we get closer to it, whether it’s advisory or binding. Section one of the Referendum Act provides for quite a range of choices there.” (CKNW, Oct 5, 2020)
“Why is Wilkinson hedging?” asked the NDP.
The Police Act gives municipalities with more than 5,000 people responsibility for providing law enforcement in their community. The BC Liberals have consistently acknowledged this authority, including in recent weeks:
Stephanie Cadieux and Tracy Redies: “We respect that this is by statute, a municipal decision to move forward.” (July 6, 2020)
The NDP said that Wilkinson knows that this is a municipal decision. “His desperate flip flopping shows that people can’t trust anything he says about the Surrey police,” it added.
Instead of unethically siding with a self-serving Surrey interest group and publicly commiting to (if elected) sabotage the establishment of a Surrey Police Dept- THAT SURREY RESIDENTS AND BUSINESS OWNERS VOTED FOR!!- the BC Liberals could have committed to (if elected) provide 5 to 7 years of transitional funding to Surrey- to enable the prompt establishment of a first-rate, properly equipped Surrey Police Dept… and to remove the potential need for city taxes to be raised to pay for the establishment of a Surrey PD…
Doing this would have removed the basis that members of Surrey’s self-serving, phony interest groups rely on for opposing the establishment of a Surrey Police Dept, and would have implicitly announced to all of Surrey’s residents and tax-payers that the BC Liberals want to see Surrey’s egregious, decades old illicit drugs and guns crimes problems rectified…
As part of their 2020 campaign, the BC Libs have commited to (if elected) canceling the PST for 2-years, removing over $15 Billion in revenues from the BC govt treasury,
… but the BC Libs are SO STUPID and SO CORRUPT that they don’t commit 1/2 of 1 percent of this $15 Billion (roughly $15 Million annually x 5 years) as police transition grant funding to Surrey for 2020- 2026…
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Did the BC Liberal party hire one of Surrey’s gangs to run their campaign strategy dept??
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Meanwhile, Surrey and its neighboring “South of Fraser” cities continue to be without a network of SkyTrain lines linking the SOF’s town centres and commerce hubs, making the SOF far less attractive to investors and businesses than the “North of Fraser’ sub-region and its extensive network of 4 SkyTrain lines (Expo, Millennium, Evergreen and Canada Line SkyTrain lines) , and the West Coast Express heavy rail line…
.. And both the BC Libs and BC NDP continue their decades of neglect of and prejudice towards the SOF… by committing $$ Billions to pay for a sixth SkyTrain line for the NOF (the UBC Line subway project)…. and zero $$ to pay for the building of SkyTrain lines in the far more needy SOF sub-region..