THE one-sided plan on retaining the RCMP in Surrey that has been ridiculed by the Surrey Police Service and analysts not connected to the RCMP was, as had been expected, passed by Surrey Connect Mayor Brenda Locke, the four Surrey Connect councillors Harry Bains, Pardeep Kooner, Rob Stutt, Gordon Hepner and Surrey First Councillor Mike Bose in Surrey Council on Monday night.
Safe Surrey Coalition councillors Doug Elford and Mandeep Nagra and Surrey First Councillor Linda Annis opposed the plan.
A press statement issued by the City said: “By keeping the RCMP, a total cost savings of $235.4M would be realized over the next five years. Council approved the plan after reviewing a five-year financial analysis of the transition to the Surrey Police Service (SPS) versus retaining the Surrey RCMP. The full transition to SPS would cost $1,160.2M while retaining the Surrey RCMP would cost $924.8M over five years.
“The key element of the ‘Policing Surrey’ Plan involves HR strategies to reach, and maintain, 734 operational RCMP members in Surrey. The Plan takes a people-centric approach and the City and the RCMP will work with interested staff to find career enhancement opportunities.”
(Read the full report here.)
The plan makes unrealistic assumptions about hiring officers for the understaffed Surrey RCMP.
The report has already been trashed by objective analysts and is bound to be rejected by Public Safety Minister and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth who has the final say on the matter of reversing the ongoing police transition.
The SPS and the RCMP also have to submit their reports to Farnworth.
The South Asian community has opposed any reversal of the ongoing transition and warned about the adverse consequences.
As The VOICE  has repeatedly pointed out, former mayor Doug McCallum won the election in 2018 with 45,564 votes — 41.08% of the total votes — to replace the RCMP with a municipal police force, whereas Locke won with only 33,311 votes — 28.14% of the total votes to keep the RCMP in the city. What is more, Locke won by fewer than 1,000 votes.
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