Surrey fails to appear for police transition meetings: Farnworth

B.C.’s Public Safety Minister is calling out the City of Surrey for its alleged ghosting during the police transition process.

Mike Farnworth says the city has either “cancelled or failed to participate” in every meeting scheduled on the topic so far.

This comes after a website campaign was launched last week, seemingly by the City of Surrey, claiming the BC NDP is “trying to force the City of Surrey to accept an expensive, disorganized police transition that will do nothing to improve public safety.”

Mayor Brenda Locke claims Surrey residents could be looking at a 20 per cent tax increase if the transition to the municipal force continues.

On Nov. 20, Locke also announced a court case to fight the change, calling it the “NDP police service.”

But Farnworth maintains that dragging the transition out by bringing up challenges like this is a waste of money and time.

“They seem to be more interested in spending taxpayers money on advertising campaigns than they do on actually being constructive and working on the transition which is moving forward,” he told reporters Monday.

Peter German, with the City of Surrey, says the city “continues to satisfy its requirements as set out in the Police Act.”

“As in any other jurisdiction in BC, city staff are not directly responsible for the administration of policing,” he said.

Legislation passed in October mandates the city must complete the transition from RCMP to the Surrey Police Service.