'An insult to the people of Surrey': Councillor slams closed-door policing decision

Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke's announcement Friday that the city's council has voted to keep the RCMP and dissolve the city's fledgling municipal police force has been met with swift and strong reaction. 

One member of the council took aim not only at the decision itself, but the way it was made: at an in-camera meeting that was closed to the public Thursday night. 

• Read more: Surrey council holds closed-door meeting on future of policing: sources

"The in-camera meeting meant there was absolutely no transparency around this incredibly important issue," said city Coun. Linda Annis, in a statement shortly after Locke's public announcement of the decision Friday.

"Councillors were only told late Wednesday about the in-camera meeting, when we were handed a 400-page city staff report and given only hours to read it. No transparency, no community involvement, no agreement between the city and the province on the facts. It was followed by yesterday’s rushed in-camera meeting that muzzled all of us who were there."

Annis called the process "an insult to the people of Surrey" that "makes the decision a personal face-off between the mayor and the province of British Columbia."

The B.C. government had recommended that the city continue its transition to the Surrey Police Service, which began under former mayor Doug McCallum.

• Read more: B.C. announces decision on Surrey police transition, recommends SPS 

Locke won power late last year after campaigning on a promise to ditch the transition to the SPS and continue with the Surrey RCMP, and her Surrey Connect party won a majority of seats on the council with the same promise.

In her statement, Annis criticized both Locke and McCallum, noting that every side in the Surrey policing debate seems to have its "own numbers" on the issue.

“Doug McCallum didn’t trust our citizens to have a referendum or give them the facts, and neither does Brenda Locke,” said Annis. “Both McCallum and Locke decided they knew best, and the mayor’s secret vote on Thursday, where our residents could not see or hear what was going on, reinforces how badly this entire issue has been handled from day one." 

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