Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke speaks during a news conference about the city's municipal police force transition, in Surrey, B.C., on April 28, 2023. A last-ditch, failed legal challenge launched by the city last October cost nearly $1.3-million, according to records obtained by the Globe and Mail.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
The City of Surrey in British Columbia spent nearly $1.3-million waging a failed legal fight against provincial orders to complete its long drawn-out policing transition from the RCMP to a local force, according to records obtained by The Globe and Mail.
Last October, Surrey filed a judicial review challenging Solicitor-General Mike Farnworth’s right to order the transition and the constitutionality of related changes to British Columbia’s Police Act. The application was a last-ditch effort to halt the change after two years of bitter feuding with the province.
But a B.C. Supreme Court judge in May dismissed the city’s petition entirely, ruling the Police Act is constitutional owing to the province’s broad authority over municipalities and policing. Mr. Farnworth has previously said the transition to the Surrey Police Service, now set to be completed on Nov. 29, is the largest shift of its kind in Canada’s history.
External lawyers billed the city a total of $1,283,065.99 in legal fees, disbursements and GST for the failed judicial review between Sept. 1, 2023, and June 1, 2024, according to records obtained through a freedom-of-information request.
Mayor Brenda Locke and three political staff members in her office also expensed a total of $908.68 in meals and transportation costs in relation to five days of court proceedings in Vancouver between April 29 and May 3. Two councillors from Ms. Locke’s Surrey Connect party and five city employees expensed $611.83 altogether to attend the court dates, the records show. Costs of regular work or overtime hours spent on the application by city lawyers and other staff are not tracked, the city said.
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Ms. Locke campaigned on reversing the transition to the Surrey Police force in the October, 2022, election in which she narrowly unseated Doug McCallum, who first initiated the move away from the RCMP in 2018. She argued the transition and new force would be too costly for taxpayers in Surrey, B.C.’s second-largest and fastest-growing municipality.
When asked about the nearly $1.3-million cost of the judicial review, the mayor called it money “pretty well spent.” She credited the court challenge for helping reach a recent $250-million agreement with the province over 10 years, including $100-million over five years to offset Surrey Police salaries if they end up being higher than what the city would have paid RCMP.
In return, Surrey has guaranteed it won’t levy a tax increase to fund the police transition in the next decade. The new force is estimated to cost up to $75-million more a year than the RCMP.
“I think that the court case, as much as some people may have judged it as being costly or thought that it was expensive, I think that was pretty good return on our investment,” said Ms. Locke.
But Councillor Linda Annis, who ran on a slate opposing Ms. Locke, said the province had offered the same deal the city eventually accepted a year earlier, before the court action.
She said the court challenge was a waste of taxpayer money and did nothing but delay the transition to Surrey Police, which Ms. Annis said is estimated to cost the city an additional $8-million each month that it pays for two forces.
“It’s a lot of money for nothing.”
Stewart Prest, a lecturer in political science at the University of British Columbia, said the cost of the legal fight suggests there were other motivations at play for Ms. Locke and her supporters on council beyond the increased expense of the Surrey Police.
“It was a desire to not be seen to be pushed around by the province and to really try to dig in around this position that they had laid out for themselves during the campaign,” he said.
Dr. Prest said the cost of the legal battle also raises questions about the mayor’s decision-making and use of taxpayer money when the transition to the municipal force already appeared to be “more or less a forgone conclusion.”
“I think there are going to be questions about why the mayor fought as long and as hard as she did rather than accepting these more intermediate deals along the way that looked very much like where we finally find ourselves today,” said Dr. Prest.