Can Liberals actually halt Surrey switch to municipal police?
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WHAT HAPPENED:
The B.C. Liberals issued a press release Sunday saying “thousands” of Surrey voters are worried about the cost of switching from the RCMP to municipal police and, if elected, the party would pause the transition and hold a referendum on whether to proceed with the change.
On Monday, Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson said the referendum could take place in the first half of 2021. NDP candidate Mike Farnworth, who as solicitor general in February approved Surrey's plan to transition to a municipal department, said the Liberals' promise is disrespectful to Surrey residents, and insists the Police Act lets cities with more than 5,000 people decide how they will provide policing.
Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum, who made axing the RCMP a key 2017 campaign promise, said the Liberals should not interfere with city hall decisions and that the transition was a “done deal.”
The Surrey Police Board has been formed, but a chief has not been hired.
We asked several experts to weigh in and most, but not all, appear to side with Wilkinson on this standoff.
QUOTES:
Wilkinson: “Since this election was called we've been knocking on doors all over Surrey, and the uniform response from people is they're worried about their economic future ... So having heard that input from people on the streets of Surrey and in their homes, we said, `Look, it's time for a pause, it's time to clarify the costs.'”
Farnworth: “This is a major violation of the relationship with a municipal level of government and an unwarranted interference in the affairs of the city of Surrey. The law makes it clear that this is a municipal decision. The role of the provincial government is to ensure public safety is maintained and that is what we will continue to do.”
FACT CHECK:
Frank Leonard was Saanich mayor and chair of the city's police board for 18 years, a former president of the Union of B.C. Municipalities, and now runs a local government consulting business.
“How a municipality is policed is ultimately a provincial decision. As mayor, I was always keeping (the
province) in the loop, because I realized they could pull the rug out from under (our municipal police department) at any time.”
A Liberal government would have the authority to stop the Surrey police transition, Leonard believes, although he added McCallum could always try to hire a lawyer to argue that it's now too late to reverse directions.
Robert Gordon, a veteran SFU criminologist, also agrees that Wilkinson, if elected, could have the power to reverse course in Surrey.
“My reading of the Police Act is that the responsibility for the provision of policing in the province of B.C. lies with the provincial government, not with the municipalities.”
Farnworth is being inconsistent when he argues the Liberals should not butt in on Surrey's decision, Gordon adds, because last year as solicitor general he
ordered the Township of Esquimalt to pay for new police officers. At the time, Farnworth argued that decision would not set a precedent around the province overruling municipal decisions because the Esquimalt situation was unique.
This was not the first time the province had interfered with policing in Esquimalt: in 2011, the Liberal government rejected council's decision to contract with the RCMP.
Kash Heed, a former Liberal solicitor general and the former West Vancouver police chief, however, has a different interpretation of the Police Act. He said the federal Constitution Act delegates policing authority to the provinces, but B.C.'s Police Act further pushes that responsibility down to local governments. Surrey met the requirements under the act to end its RCMP contract, Heed argued, and the previous NDP govern
ment approved the transition to a municipal force.
“The provincial government cannot decide to move into municipal politics and hold a referendum on that issue,” Heed said.
Andrew Heard, a SFU political scientist, said the B.C. Referendum Act would give the Liberals the right to question Surrey residents about policing. And while provincial governments have increasingly respected the autonomy of local governments to decide how to deliver their own services, the provincial cabinet must still approve municipal policing changes, Heard said.
“What the Liberals appear to be saying is that the NDP government may have signed off on Surrey replacing the RCMP, but a new Liberal government would consider rescinding that approval if the people of Surrey vote to retain the RCMP.”