Most Surrey residents oppose policing change
In the last couple of months, many British Columbians have lost their jobs, experienced loss of income, and had significant disruption to their day-to-day lives. This has been an incredibly unstable period of time, and it is changing views on a number of important issues.
One issue of particular importance in Surrey is the mayor’s plan to transition away from the RCMP. It is a plan that still offers very little detail, becomes more and more expensive by the month, and that Surrey residents increasingly oppose.
Our world has changed significantly since the National Police Federation engaged Pollara Strategic Insights to conduct a poll in Surrey in January, so we updated the survey to see how and if people’s views have changed since the COVID-19 outbreak and prevention measures began. The survey includes a randomly selected sample of 803 Surrey residents, and was done between April 17 and 27.
The key finding is that 83 per cent of Surrey residents surveyed agree that now is not the time to put money from Surrey taxpayers toward Mayor Doug McCallum’s policing transition. Support for the mayor’s plan dropped from 48 per cent in January to 31 per cent in this April survey, while opposition increased from 46 per cent to 60 per cent during the same period. In fact, only 16 per cent of Surrey residents surveyed believe that replacing the Surrey RCMP with a municipal police force should be a major priority right now.
Instead of the mayor’s costly plan,
Surrey residents are saying their priorities are funding core services and providing support for those who have been impacted by or are vulnerable to this pandemic. As evidenced through the outpourings of support for frontline health care workers across the country, British Columbians are appreciating the importance of dedicated and experienced emergency responders who know and serve their communities. In the wake of significant, destabilizing world events, residents look for local stability. Events like COVID-19 put these critical considerations into perspective.
Instead of investing in a costly transition plan, residents’ responses indicate Surrey should be investing the more than $19 million earmarked for the plan into helping the RCMP combat serious crime in the community. In fact, the results of the survey showed that 77 per cent of Surrey residents support keeping the RCMP or retaining them with improved services. No one in the
RCMP believes that our work is done in Surrey, but RCMP members have shown what professional, passionate local policing can achieve; crime has decreased steadily in Surrey since 2007 and is now at a ten-year low.
As the labour relations leader of the National Police Federation, my job is to advocate for the best interests of my members. Surrey is served by 850 members of the RCMP, an impressively diverse group who speak 51 different languages. Our members chose to work with the RCMP, for the people of Surrey who they know and care about. If forced, due to a costly transition, many will reluctantly choose to leave the community where they live, raise their families, and have years of experience so they can continue their career with the RCMP but in other communities. That isn’t their preference, and would result in an incredible loss of experience and connection at a time when we need stability more than ever.
The mayor’s costly transition isn’t inevitable. In fact, the MLA for Surrey-Newton and NDP Minister of Labour Harry Bains, acknowledged concerns about the transparency of the costs and public safety implications of the transition, speaking at a Surrey Board of Trade webinar on April 29. The mayor, or the provincial government, could decide that now is not the time for this expensive, disruptive proposal. Mayor and council still have an opportunity to listen to the voices of the people of Surrey who are saying very clearly that the world has changed, and their city’s priorities need to change with it.