The Mayor of Surrey, which has BC’s largest RCMP detachment, is furious at being blindsided by the cost of raises for the Mounties.
Dianne Watts says it is a slap in the face after negotiations where mayors emphasized both transparency and cost containment to Ottawa.
Watts said “We relayed all of those issues to the federal government and said you know what we want co-operation here we have to know and plan for. And this just speaks to the issue arbitrary decisions are made and then cities are handed the bill and are expected to pay millions of dollars and we have had no input on it.”
She says the move will mean significant added costs for Surrey.
Watts said “We have all done our budgets, they are done. You know and we get this advisory yesterday saying that here is all the increases it is passed by Treasury here is the bill. And the bill for us as it stands right from what I am looking at is anywhere from $ 6 to 8 million.”
Watts says the cost wasn’t budgeted for and leaves the city struggling with how to find the money.
She said “Well that is exactly the question. We don’t even know because there has been no conversation we don’t even know the extent of this there is still questions in the wording around what that means we do not have the information or anything else.”
Watts says the move is everything wrong with the old RCMP deal where cities are just handed a policing bill with no input at all.
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