We’re now learning that the municipality with BC’s largest RCMP detachment had some indication mounties would receive a pay raise.
This, despite Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts claiming last week that she was “shocked” to learn Ottawa had approved wage increases.
The City of Surrey now admits it received budget estimates from the RCMP in the early summer that indicated a wage increase of 1.5-percent a year, in each of the next three years.
But notes no formal notification had been received from the federal government.
Because its agreement is with the feds, there was an assumption any cost adjustments would be discussed further before approval.
While the raise approved was a quarter-of-a-percent higher, other municipalities, Kelowna, say the bump won’t hurt that much, since they budgeted for that 1.5-percent increase.
The six to eight million dollar hit to Surrey Dianne Watts was talking about last week appears to come from the city not budgeting for any pay increase — despite that notification.
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