Surrey police to cost more than RCMP: former AG

SURREY (NEWS 1130) – A municipal police force will likely cost more than having the RCMP serve Surrey, according to the chair of the city’s transition committee.

Former B.C. attorney general Wally Oppal made the comments while speaking at the Surrey’s Board of Trade on Wednesday. Oppal was providing a progress update on the 450-page transition report, which is still not available to the public.

He said he wasn’t there to give political advice, nor is it his job to hold a referendum on policing.

“I was the chair of the transition committee. That job is now done. I don’t know what my role will be in the future, if, in fact, there is anything for me,” Oppal said.

He conceded a municipal police force in Surrey will provide more local control, but likely cost more than having RCMP serve the city.

But he couldn’t say how much more because a cost analysis hasn’t been done.

On the issue of cost, Oppal says no costing analysis has been done, but municipal forces are typically more expensive than the RCMP. “Probably it will cost more, we don’t know how much.” @NEWS1130 pic.twitter.com/qDwmu5BUOW

— Kurtis Doering (@KDnewsguy) February 26, 2020

The next step is to install a police board and chief, but it’s not clear when that will happen.

Some members of a group trying to keep the RCMP in Surrey attended the board of trade meeting.

“Taxpayers in Surrey want to be heard,” said one woman of the group. “If you can’t help us, then who can?”

Volunteers with a Surrey group petitioning to keep the RCMP delivered 40 boxes containing a signed petition to the Vancouver Cabinet Office on Valentine’s Day.

The group, KEEP the RCMP, aims to collect 50,000 signatures in total.

A majority of voters in Surrey want to cast a ballot before scrapping the RCMP in favour of a municipal force, according to a poll released last week.

The poll – conducted by Pollara for the National Police Federation, which represents more than 20,000 RCMP officers in the country – asked whether voters wanted a referendum on the issue.

Having one was either strongly or somewhat supported by more than 80 per cent people asked.

The city received approval from the province in April to replace the RCMP with a municipal police force.

Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum has said the new municipal force will start operating next year.

McCallum and his allied councillors did not attend the board of trade meeting.