Surrey mayor rejects police force’s budget increase request

After the Surrey Police Board requested a $91 million increase in their proposed provisional budget, the city’s mayor rejected the motion on Wednesday.

Mayor Brenda Locke says that, if the funding increase got approved, it would mean an 18 per cent property tax increase for Surrey residents.

Linda Annis, a Surrey city councillor and one of the mayor’s critics, sees in Locke’s resistance an example of her anti-Surrey Police Service (SPS) rhetoric.

“My top priority is to protect our taxpayers and keep our community safe,” Mayor Locke told 1130 NewsRadio.

“And an 18 per cent tax increase, $91 million, it’s just not supportable. We can’t do that at this time.”

While she calls the budget “extraordinarily excessive”, she says she would support hiring additional officers.

“We need to grow our Police Department, absolutely, and we have been doing that. But this is an extraordinary amount. I don’t think that anybody could say that a 38 per cent increase makes sense year over year.”

Locke adds that her government has supported a budget increase in the previous three years, and will do so now in light of the “current wave of extortions in the city.”

She hopes to find common ground with the police board and says that her staff will review the provisional budget.

“This is the first round of discussions with the Surrey Police Board. Our staff and the Surrey Police Service Board will be talking about it moving forward, and hopefully they will make some changes,” Locke explained.

Councillor Annis accuses Mayor Locke of playing politics

Meanwhile, Surrey First Coun. Annis disagrees and criticizes Locke for standing in the way of the police transition from the RCMP to the SPS.

“This is one prime example of her again trying to discredit the Surrey Police Service board, Annis told 1130 NewsRadio.

“We should have had a conversation between the council and the police board before this was put out to the public.”

Surrey decided to transition away from the RCMP in 2018 when the city council voted to establish its own municipal police force.

The provincial government greenlit the move, paving the way for the SPS to take over law enforcement duties in November 2024. 

“First and foremost, we need to get this transition completed as quickly as possible. It’s taken far too long,” Annis said.

“It’s now going into its seventh year, and if you were to compare that to World War Two, it was fought and resolved in less time than what it’s taken to complete the transition.”

Annis accuses Mayor Locke of playing politics with public safety.

“The mayor is doing anything that she possibly can to derail the transition, and I think it’s time now that we move beyond that; we need to get this done as quickly as possible.”

The SPS recently expanded its jurisdiction to all of South Surrey and anticipates the transition to be complete at some point in 2026-2027.

The proposed police budget includes hiring additional officers, expanding civilian staff, and building technology infrastructure to support municipal policing.

With files from Ben Bouguerra.