Surrey council takes next steps in scrapping municipal force in favour of RCMP
Surrey council takes next steps in scrapping municipal force in favour of RCMP
Surrey’s new mayor and council have taken the next step in their plan to scrap the Surrey Police Service and maintain the RCMP as the city’s police force.
Assistant Commissioner Brian Edwards, commanding officer of the Surrey RCMP, appeared at Monday night’s council meeting to lay out the plan for keeping the national force.
"My job is to lead policing for this city, it is the job of others to decide who polices the city,” Edwards said as he made a presentation that council would ultimately vote to accept.
He also presented a chart purporting to show crime in the city trending down over the last decade.
“Certainly we know, by looking at the crime stats that were provided to us last night, we know that Surrey is doing very well on the crime stats,” said Mayor Brenda Locke at a Tuesday morning news conference.
The Surrey Police Union – which represents officers hired by the municipal Surrey Police Service – has a very different take on where things stand when it comes to crime in the city.
“What is important is the crime index. And right now, Surrey is the most dangerous community in Canada,” said Const. Ryan Buhrig, the union’s spokesperson.
“And I think that just shows the work that needs to be done and the work that Surrey Police Service is ready for.”
The union put out a news release Monday morning claiming the city is not being policed with acceptable numbers of officers in the community.
It claims that of 14 shifts over the last week, 50 per cent of them failed to meet the RCMP’s own requirements for minimum staffing levels.
In his own statement sent later in the day, the RCMP’s Edwards fired back, saying the information provided by the union was not accurate.
“It is not common practice for police to release exact breakdowns of operational resources on any given shift. What I can say is that the statistics and numbers provided by the SPU are inaccurate, and in my view, are deliberately intended to mislead the public,” Edwards said. “I call on the Surrey Police Service Executive to expend all efforts to discontinue this harmful rhetoric from the Surrey Police Union.”
At the council meeting, Edwards said the RCMP needs to hire more than 160 new officers to work in Surrey.
That could be a challenge, given that policing in the city appears to be a political football, subject to the whims of a new mayor and council every four years.
“I think it is something that we have to talk to the solicitor general about,” said Locke. “The process in changing your police department has to be much more rigid than it was in the beginning.”
The city expects to have a report on the process of retaining the RCMP on Solicitor General Mike Farnworth’s desk by mid-December.
In the meantime, Locke said she has asked the SPS to curtail its spending, but the force has refused.
“It is obvious that the City of Surrey has absolutely no control over what the Surrey Police Service does,” she said.
That remarkable admission by the city’s mayor – and the chair of its police board – is another sign of just how sour the relationship has become.
The federal government is seeking to delay the extension of assisted dying eligibility to people whose sole condition is a mental disorder until March 17, 2024. Justice Minister David Lametti introduced a bill seeking the extension in the House of Commons on Thursday.
A gay man is taking the federal government to court, challenging the constitutionality of a policy restricting gay and bisexual men from donating to sperm banks in Canada, CTV News has learned.
Will we see six more weeks of winter, or an early spring? Here’s what some of the groundhogs (and one human) have predicted so far, from coast-to-coast.
Nestle Canada says it is winding down its frozen meals and pizza business in Canada over the next six months. The four brands that will no longer be sold in the freezer aisle at Canadian grocery stores are Delissio, Stouffer's, Lean Cuisine and Life Cuisine.
The United States has answered President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's plea for rockets that can strike deep behind the front lines of the nearly year-long conflict with Russia. Now Russian forces will need to adapt or face potentially catastrophic losses.
Australia is removing the monarchy from its bank notes. The nation's new $5 bill will feature an Indigenous design rather than an image of King Charles III. But the king is still expected to appear on coins that currently bear the image of the late Queen Elizabeth II.
The organization regulating medical care and services in Manitoba is apologizing for racism directed towards Indigenous people when accessing health care in the province.
A Quebec woman said she was very surprised to find her stolen Audi had been used in what’s being described as an “absolutely insane” Ontario mall robbery.
A pair of provincial parks are being considered in the B.C. government's treaty negotiations with the T’Sou-ke and Songhees nations on Vancouver Island.
A homicide investigation is underway on Quadra Island, B.C., after a 39-year old woman was found dead in what investigators believe was a targeted killing.
Calgary's Scotiabank Saddledome was packed to the rafters with fans eager to take a look at Canadian phenom Connor Bedard and the 17-year-old did not fail to impress.
Athabasca University's board of governors has replaced the president who resisted the government's demand to double the distance-learning school's number of employees who live in Athabasca.
A large crowd of around 700 students, faculty members and Lethbridge residents came out on Wednesday to protest a planned speech by Frances Widdowson at the University of Lethbridge that didn't take place.
Ontario has released a new 'connected' and 'convenient' health-care plan aimed at shortening wait times and localizing access to care across the province.
Three Richmond Hill residents have been arrested after police seized $500,000 in fake gift cards from a “sophisticated forgery lab” while searching multiple local properties last month.
A polar vortex is descending over Ontario this week and some of the coldest weather is still to come. Wind chills will also reach dangerous levels, increasing the risk of frostbite.
The next few nights are expected to be frigid in Montreal, with wind chill factors dropping to -30. In order to prevent anyone experiencing homelessness from ending up outdoors, the City of Montreal is announcing the opening of two emergency shelters.
A Quebec woman said she was very surprised to find her stolen Audi had been used in what’s being described as an “absolutely insane” Ontario mall robbery.
The organization regulating medical care and services in Manitoba is apologizing for racism directed towards Indigenous people when accessing health care in the province.
A former professional hockey player well-known for dropping the gloves is trying his hand at acting and will star in another season of the Canadian sitcom Shoresy.
Paramedic logs from 2022 are highlighting some of the pressures Regina EMS workers have been facing for months including one instance where a patient died following offload delays at the hospital, the documents indicate.
On the day that Shubenacadie Sam predicted six more weeks of winter, there are warnings and statements cautioning that the coldest air of the season is about to arrive in the Maritimes.
One person has died after a two-vehicle crash in south London Wednesday night. Police were called to the scene on Bostwick Road around 7:20 p.m. and say there were five people injured in total and all five were taken to the hospital with injuries ranging from serious to life-threatening.
Wiarton Willie has predicted an early spring! The groundhog in South Bruce Peninsula didn't see his shadow at 8:07 a.m. on Thursday morning, meaning spring is on the way.
Highway 11 in northern Ontario is closed Thursday morning from Highway 66 near Kenogami Lake to Matheson after a collision involving several vehicles, police say.
Wiarton Willie made his prediction his spring prediction Thursday morning at 8:07 a.m. The groundhog did not see his shadow, meaning we could get an early spring.
