Affidavits reveal private police conversation between Surrey mayor and Prime Minister

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As the first day of a British Columbia Supreme Court judicial review begins into how Surrey will be controlled, new documents about high-level private meetings over the past year show Mayor Brenda Locke appeared to be trying to win an ally in Prime Minister David Eby.

On the same day that Surrey city council held a second vote, June 15, 2023, to continue with the RCMP, Locke and consultant Peter German met earlier online with Eby and his chief of staff, Matt Smith.

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He told Eby he was concerned that Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth was disrupting what the city was trying to do, giving them deadlines and writing directly to their councillors.

“I ask you to help us as best you can. “We’ve seen this minister (Farnwoth) move the goalposts a couple of times and we want this to end as much as you do,” Locke told Eby.

Locke’s direct request for help from Eby is revealed in affidavits filed in court in the city’s effort to overturn the British Columbia government’s decision to force the transition to a new municipal police force in Surrey. That hearing will last five days.

The documents show there were many efforts, some until now unknown, to resolve the bitter dispute privately. Locke’s comments to Eby are revealed in an affidavit by Shannon Salter, Eby’s deputy prime minister and head of the public service, who took detailed notes of the meeting.

At the same meeting, Locke told Eby that the Surrey police board was disrespectful to her and that the Surrey Police Service “has proven that it is not a good police service,” according to Salter’s notes.

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“I don’t know what they care about, but not Surrey,” the mayor said.

Locke also alleged that Surrey Police Service officers had previously left and told Eby that the RCMP had to get the province to tell them to return to work. And he said there was concern it could happen again if the city voted to stick with the RCMP.

There are no details in the notes about when exactly the strike occurred or for what reason.

But Surrey Police Service spokesman Ian MacDonald said on Monday that it is absolutely untrue that Surrey Police officers stood down at any time.

“Not a single member of the SPS withdrew. We have been unconditionally professional. “We have been diligently serving the community and we would never do that,” MacDonald said.

The Ministry of Public Security on Monday refused to respond to questions about Locke’s strike allegations.

Salter’s notes show that Eby wanted to know if the city had a contingency plan for a strike. German told Eby the RCMP had plans for the worst-case scenario.

Other affidavits from Locke and his political adviser, Kristy Wawryk, show that there were also conversations between Locke and the prime minister just before a speech by the prime minister at a Surrey Board of Trade luncheon at the Northview Golf and Country Club, where a photo of the two together was taken.

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In a subsequent phone call, in April 2023, Wawryk’s notes recount that Eby said he didn’t care what police force Surrey was going to have, but that it was being hit on public safety and needed the problem resolved. His comments were made as some high-profile crimes had recently occurred, including the stabbing death of a man outside a Starbucks in Vancouver.

Wawryk said he recalled the premier telling the mayor: “I don’t care what the decision is, I just need to get out of it.”

He also recalled that Eby told the mayor that they should meet in person without the presence of Farnworth, whom Wawryk had referred to as “Farny” in his notes.

In another phone call with the prime minister in May 2023, Eby told Locke that it didn’t matter what the outcome was, what mattered was that the decision would fall “on them, not us,” according to Wawryk’s notes.

Eby has repeatedly said in public statements about policing in Surrey that it doesn’t matter what badge an officer wears, what matters is that there is a responding police officer. That’s different from what Wawryk says he said in the meetings with Locke.

In an affidavit filed by Locke, he said that after a meeting in September 2023, just before the Union of BC Municipalities’ annual convention in Vancouver, he was cautiously optimistic that the province would come to see Surrey’s perspective. .

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But that optimism proved premature.

The dispute is now in its 18th month.

Locke and his majority council rejected a $250 million offer from the province to help transition to a new municipal force to replace the RCMP. Shortly after, British Columbia’s NDP government set a Nov. 29 date for police takeover in Surrey and said some of the money offered, $150 million, would be used to advance the transition.

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