Battle over future of Surrey policing heads to court

After years of public wrangling, the seemingly interminable debate over policing in the City of Surrey will move to B.C. Supreme Court this week for a battle pitting two fundamental rights against each other: the will of the people and the need for public safety.

Lawyers for the city want a judge to undo an order from B.C. Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth mandating a transition away from the RCMP and to overturn newly enacted legislation that basically makes it the law for Surrey to have a municipal squad.

They claim the province is thwarting the will of taxpayers who voted in October 2022 to elect a city council that promised to keep the RCMP in Surrey —  violating the section of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that guarantees freedom of expression through the ballot box.

Meanwhile, the province says the work already done to set up the new Surrey Police Service has depleted the old RCMP detachment to the point that trying to turn back the clock would create a public safety crisis in Surrey and the rest of the province.

And besides — voters are free to express themselves at the polls, the province says, but there's no guarantee that what they vote for will actually happen.

'When is it going to end?'

Nearly eight years have passed since former Surrey mayor Doug McCallum rode into office on a promise to replace the RCMP as the police of jurisdiction in the city.

In the time since, a pandemic has happened, a pro-RCMP council was elected and McCallum was acquitted of public mischief after accusing a political opponent of running over his foot at a demonstration in support of the federal force.

Former Surrey mayor Doug McCallum rode to office in 2018 on a promise to switch from RCMP to municipal policing. His plans have proven difficult for his successor to undo. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)

"Soap opera" doesn't quite begin to cover it. And people outside Surrey — as well as people inside, for that matter — might be forgiven for asking "When is it going to end?"

Both sides are hoping a B.C. Supreme Court judge will answer that question this week.

In a petition filed in advance of the proceedings, the City of Surrey is asking for a judicial review of Farnworth's decision last summer ordering the transition to go ahead. The city also wants the judge to void changes to the Police Act designed to facilitate the move away from the RCMP.

Surrey claims Farnworth is encroaching on the city's jurisdiction.

"Fundamentally, the choice of police of jurisdiction is the city's to make," the city said in an amended petition filed last November.

"The minister acted without jurisdiction by purporting to compel the city to remove the RCMP and to adopt a municipal police force as its police of jurisdiction, contrary to the determination by the duly-elected city council."

'Public safety risks in other communities'

In their arguments, both sides give detailed descriptions of events leading up to Farnworth's announcement this week that the Surrey Police Service will officially take over as the police of jurisdiction on Nov. 29.

To get to that point, the province says Surrey police officers have been gradually deploying into the RCMP detachment since November 2021, reducing the ranks of the RCMP by at least 160 officers.

Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth has ordered the City of Surrey to make the transition to a municipal police force. But the city is challenging him in court. (Michael McArthur/CBC)

When the City of Surrey said it wanted to reverse course in 2022, the province says Farnworth asked the city to come up with a detailed plan to go back to the way things were.

Part of the problem envisioned by the province was that some new Surrey Police Services officers would quit and those who stick around might not be integrated into the RCMP — creating a policing void either way.

"The city and RCMP proposed to restaff the Surrey RCMP detachment in part by prioritizing Surrey's needs over other RCMP staffing needs in British Columbia," the province says in its response.

"This approach would create public safety risks in other communities. The RCMP has 1,500 existing vacancies across the province and was already having difficulty filling these vacancies."

According to the court documents, Farnworth offered the city a path back to the RCMP contingent on certain conditions, but the city claims the conditions were "either impossible or onerous to fulfil and further complicated the city's ability to provide policing."

Changes 'squelched' democratic expression

Crucially, the city also takes aim in its petition at a "Surrey-specific" amendment to the Police Act last October "which requires the city to provide policing through a municipal police department."

The court documents cite previous statements in which Farnworth "specifically represented to Surrey voters that the choice of policing model was the city's to make."

Surrey voters turned out in 2022 to elect a pro-RCMP council. But amendments to the Police Act make a municipal force the law. The city claims that's a breach of Charter rights. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

The changes to the Police Act "have squelched the Surrey voters expression of their democratic will," the petition states.

For its part, the province says the changes to the Police Act themselves should be enough to short circuit the judicial review: Independent of any orders from Farnworth, the law now says Surrey has to provide policing through a municipal department. Game over.

But in case that doesn't sway a judge, the province says Farnworth's decision was reasonable given the threat to policing elsewhere because "it would be a dereliction of duty for the minister to approve a proposal that would reduce costs but endanger public safety."

In its response, the province also says that a law mandating a municipal police force doesn't infringe on the Charter rights of voters who want the RCMP.

"The Charter does not provide a constitutional guarantee that the majority's point of view on a given issue will be implemented," the province says.

The province says the voters who the city wants to protect "includes persons who voted for pro-Surrey Police Service candidates and persons who did not vote at all. These persons certainly cannot be taken to have expressed a preference for the RCMP."