A $45 Million Budget Cut To RCMP In 2021

“Increasing Population, Increasing Calls To Police, No New Officers Since 2018, Fewer Officers In Proposed Surrey Police Service – And A $45 Million Budget Cut To RCMP In 2021: If You Think This Is a Serious Public Safety Concern, You’re Right”

Surrey First Councillor Linda Annis says public safety in Surrey is facing “a perfect storm” in 2021, all because the mayor and his remaining Safe Surrey Coalition councillors have their priorities all wrong.

“Our population is closing in on 600,000, the annual number of calls to police has grown to nearly 200,000, we haven’t hired any additional RCMP officers since 2018, the proposed local police force actually plans to have fewer officers than we have right now, and the mayor and his remaining councillors have voted to cut the RCMP budget by $45 million in 2021,” said Annis.

“Any one of these issues would be a public safety challenge on its own, but when you add them all together we’re about to face a perfect storm that will hurt public safety in our city in 2021 and beyond.”

Annis said calls to police in 2017 reached 182,540, and in 2019 reached 199,020, with 2020 looking almost the same. By the beginning of December there were 188,920 calls to police, and there are still a couple of weeks left to go in 2020.

“Frankly, I think the mayor and his councillors are playing fast and loose with public safety,” added Annis. “When you don’t provide the resources and officers a growing city needs, you risk putting the community and its families in harm’s way. It’s short-sighted and frankly it’s dangerous.

“Service calls to the police are up and growing, officer numbers are stagnant, and the proposed municipal force actually calls for fewer officers, which is absolutely ridiculous for a city nearing 600,000 residents. Meanwhile, we’re cutting the RCMP budget in 2021.

It makes absolutely no sense. What we should be doing is putting the municipal force on hold and properly funding the RCMP and increasing the number of officers right now. Instead, we are siphoning off every available dollar into the mayor’s Surrey Police Service, all at the expense of public safety issues staring us in the face.”