ndp threw money at surrey police changeover, but still lost seats in the election
vaughn palmer: with reports circulating of unresolved issues, the new public safety minister may yet face challenges
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victoria — the new democrats must be hoping they’ve heard the last of the surrey policing controversy with this week’s handover from the rcmp to the city’s surrey police service. the b.c. government spent 18 months in a desperate effort to bury the issue before the election.
they committed provincial taxpayers to covering an unprecedented $250 million in transition costs to placate surrey mayor brenda locke and her council majority, which wanted to keep the rcmp.
yet all the effort and public money failed to secure the ndp’s hold on surrey, where it lost ground to the b.c. conservatives.
premier david eby blundered when he intervened publicly in the negotiations, overshadowing the then public safety minister, mike farnworth.
the premier’s comments illustrate eby’s misplaced self-assurance, even when he’s bluffing. here’s what he said at a news conference on oct. 23, 2023, when the provincial offer to surrey was $150 million in transition funding.
“there is no more money. there is no more money. there is $150 million on the table. there is no more money.”
three times in four sentences: there is no more money.
eby’s “final offer” would be funny if it weren’t for what it would eventually cost taxpayers.
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come january of this year, the province was back at the negotiating table, offering surrey more money. a lot more money.
with the city balking at $150 million, the new democrats improved the offer to $250 million, a 67 per cent increase on the premier’s supposedly “final” offer.
“oh, to be sitting across from david eby in a negotiation,” as more than one critic remarked from the sidelines.
the new democrats repeatedly mocked locke, in public and behind the scenes. but though she lost a court battle with the province, she outlasted eby and his team in the negotiations.
the new democrats were desperate. they were in trouble in their seven seats in surrey over things like school portables and hospital overcrowding. they wanted to get policing off the agenda before the fall election.
the deal was announced july 10, just 10 weeks before the official start of the election campaign. the money was made public. surrey disavowed any further threats of court action and promised to help with the transition.
but there was a secret covenant as well.
“council members signed a non-disclosure agreement which was insisted on by the province,” wrote frank bucholtz in the surrey now-leader this week. “since that time, council members won’t say a word about the transition, in return for a promise of $250 million to help pay for it.”
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the lid was lifted on the secret part of the agreement by bob mackin of the breaker online news service. in his reading of the confidential text, the $250 million payout was conditional on the mayor and council agreeing to “cease all public relations campaigns and activities against the transition.”
they also agreed to support the transition publicly on pain of the province cutting off funding.
the terms would remain secret. not likely will the new democrats ever agree to make them public.
the unprecedented payout, coupled with the gag order, did knock the policing controversy out of the news.
david eby.
darryl dyck/the canadian press
but it wasn’t enough to reverse ndp political fortunes in surrey. the conservatives won six of surrey’s 10 seats in the provincial legislature. the ndp lost three seats and came within 22 votes of losing its legislative majority through a fourth seat.
in the postelection cabinet, the premier shuffled farnworth out of the public safety ministry, where he’d presided over the stormy relationship with surrey. at one point, the surrey mayor accused the minister of bullying her. at another, he refused to take her calls.
one joke making the rounds in victoria these days says the government spent a quarter of a billion dollars to buy the silence of brenda locke, and farnworth doesn’t even get to enjoy it.
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the new public safety minister is garry begg — “landslide begg,” as the premier called him, a nod to his 22-vote winning margin in his surrey seat.
begg, a former rcmp inspector, will need all of his experience and skill to navigate the months ahead.
after all that, the transition is only partial. the surrey police service, while holding jurisdiction overall, will only police whalley and newton for now. the rcmp is still patrolling the other three city districts. full transition is expected to take another two to three years.
though locke stopped criticizing the province, she never disavowed her earlier claim that the $250 million fell short of surrey’s estimate of the full cost of the handover over the next 10 years.
the rcmp has quietly circulated a list of undecided and unresolved issues as well.
then there’s the potential spillover effect.
other municipalities are considering establishing their own stand-alone police forces, driven by suspicions that ottawa wants to phase out rcmp detachments in larger towns and cities.
having set the precedent, the new democrats will have trouble saying no if other municipalities come calling for transition funding on the same scale as their bailout of surrey.
