VICTORIA — B.C. Premier David Eby says it’s time for the City of Surrey and the province to talk about the extra money the city says it needs to replace the RCMP with a local police force. 

Eby says the provincial government’s $150-million contribution to cover transition costs remains on the table, but there will be no more. 

Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke has said there will be a $314-million shortfall over 10 years if they have to drop the RCMP, and Surrey has asked for a judicial review of the government’s order that it must transition to a local police force. 

But Eby told a news conference on a separate issue that the city has not shown where the added costs will be, and its police budget currently has a surplus. 

The premier says Locke has noted some important issues about cost and implementation that were not included by the former mayor “for political reasons,” and she is right raise those problems.

He says Surrey is prolonging the dispute over the future of policing and that “shadow boxing” with Locke about costs the government has no awareness of seems impossible. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2023.

The Canadian Press