– Tax payers will have to pay more than $66 million in compensation to Surrey Police Service officers

–  Doug McCallum won the election in 2018 with 45,564 votes — 41.08% of the total votes — while Locke  won with only 33,311 votes — 28.14% of the total votes

– RCMP will have complete control over Brenda Locke

THE Safe Surrey Coalition announced on Monday evening that with less than a 1,000-vote difference in Saturday’s count in the municipal election, Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum “is not conceding at this point in time.”

It added: “Our legal advisors are currently reviewing The Local Elections Act section 148 for a judicial recount. The Act outlines rules for requesting a judicial recount through the B.C. Supreme Court.”

Locke bagged 33,111 of the votes as compared to McCallum’s 32,338 votes — a difference of only 973 votes.

The VOICE reported on Saturday: “The difference in votes narrowed to only around 500 as the results of the last two polls were being counted. That caused some dread in Locke’s camp. But then Locke’s lead started increasing again and she won by 973 votes.”

MEANWHILE, Locke has come under massive pressure for misleading voters that reversing the police transition was a piece of cake and that all that had to be done was to merely transfer the Surrey Police Service officers to the RCMP or back to their former police forces.

Solicitor General Mike Farnworth wants to see a clear plan from Locke as to how she intends to go about that. He made it clear that the plan would have to be made public because people want to know how it would be carried out.

Others have pointed to the huge cost of compensating SPS officers if the transition is reversed – and now we are learning that tax payers will have to pay more than $66 million.

It is also important to note that the RCMP will have complete control over Locke — in fact, it already does. She will do whatever the RCMP wants because she won with their support and that of their union and the Keep the RCMP in Surrey group.

Angry Surrey-ites are also pointing out that McCallum won the election in 2018 with 45,564 votes — 41.08% of the total votes — when he started the policing transition from the RCMP to Surrey Police Service.

So, they want to know how Brenda Locke with just 28.14% of the total votes and merely 33,311 votes (just 973 votes more than what McCallum bagged) can be taken seriously by the Province when she wants to reverse the ongoing policing transition.

This is bound to lead to angry demonstrations against retaining the RCMP in Surrey and the vast majority of South Asians will not support moves to do away with the Surrey Police Service. Any government that does away with the Surrey Police Service will have to face the voters’ wrath. Remember, the BC Liberals actually lost a seat in Surrey in the last provincial election on this issue.