Opponents of Surrey Police Transition Make Last Effort to Force Referendum – BC | The Canadian News

Opponents of Surrey’s transition to a municipal police force came through Sunday in a final effort to gather signatures as they try to force a referendum on the change.

The Surrey Police Vote group hopes to use the BC Initiative and Revocation Act, the law that forced the HST referendum, to pressure the provincial government to conduct a vote.

“People want to have a voice in this. They want a voice and they haven’t had one, ”organizer Darlene Bennett told Global News.

“The mayor has not been able to provide objective information, be transparent about the costs and what we are really getting.”

Under the legislation, the bill’s proponents must gather the signatures of 10 percent of registered voters on all walks in the province to trigger a referendum.

Bennett said his group did not attempt to do that and focused its efforts primarily on Surrey’s nine constituencies, where it is confident the group will reach the 10 percent threshold.

While the province would not be legally bound to act, she believes political pressure would force the British Columbia NDP government to vote.

“I think we are very close. We need a little more than 35,000 (signatures) and I think we are very, very close to that, ”he said.

Bennett, whose husband Paul was an innocent victim in a failed gang coup in 2018, said her main concerns were the new force’s ability to be effective and connected to the community, and the rising and still unclear cost of the transition.

“Costs just kept rising – our property taxes all saw at least an 11 percent increase this year,” he said.

“They said police officers from 17 law enforcement agencies across Canada have joined. That doesn’t sound very local to me. “

The transition to a municipal police force in Surrey was one of Mayor Doug McCallum’s key electoral promises.

Since then, the issue has become a political lightning rod and has been at the center of several high-profile civic failures, including a recent municipal ban on lawn signs that, according to opponents of the transition, unjustly attacked them.

Police have also opened an investigation into mischief stemming from an incident in September in which McCallum was run over by suspected pro-RCMP activists.

McCallum has maintained that the transition will go ahead as planned. The department has made several key hires, including a boss and senior staff, and aims to have 50 officers on the streets working alongside the Surrey RCMP by the end of November.

Surrey Coun. Brenda Locke, who is also opposed to the transition, said the provincial government would be foolish to ignore the campaign if it manages to collect signatures from 10 percent of Surrey’s registered voters.

“This is a very important problem here. Surrey is a very important electoral area for all governments and they better pay attention, ”he said.

If the campaign succeeds in its goal, he said he hopes the province will hold a vote in concert with the 2022 municipal elections.

Surrey Police Vote says it will hold a press event on Monday to reveal the results of its campaign.