Thanks to Brenda Locke, the police transition is taking longer and costing more than it should: Linda Annis
Surrey, B.C. (December 3, 2025): Surrey First Councillor Linda Annis says Brenda Locke is turning a preliminary draft budget from the Surrey Police Service into yet another of her "anti-SPS political footballs" even though she is the one responsible for transition delays and increased costs.
"The police transition is in year seven, and heading into year eight," noted Annis, Surrey First candidate for mayor. "It took less time to win the Second World War, and that delay is traced right back to Brenda Locke's decision to stop and cancel the entire transition. Once again, the mayor is doing everything she can to delay and derail, and she's hoping to damage the reputation of our new police service along the way.
"Mayor Locke knows the draft budget from the SPS is just that, a draft for discussion and debate, but more important, the police transition is a multi-year process with a budget envelope from the province of $250 million. The SPS is well within that budget, and the transition will be complete in 2027. The transition costs are also front-end loaded for obvious reasons, because it includes things like technology, cars, and equipment. So when Brenda Locke uses a draft budget to raise financial concerns, she should take a good look in the mirror because her term as mayor has done nothing but add delays and costs."
Annis said Locke stopped the transition in 2022 and forced the SPS to halt hiring while she tried to cancel the transition. That delay and losing court battle cost time and money when she stopped the process, and it also cost money when she lost the court case and the transition was started up again.
"Delays cost money, and when Brenda Locke failed in her costly court case, the SPS needed to ramp up and that came with costs as they tried to make up for lost time," explained Annis. "Meanwhile, this past year the SPS had a $25 million surplus, and they should be able to retain that surplus as part of the overall transition funding envelope."
Annis said the transition and its budgets are based on the SPS ramping up while the RCMP reduce their numbers and costs.
"As the SPS hires up, the RCMP should be deploying officers to other places, that's the perfect model," noted Annis. "But I understand that the RCMP is not deploying officers out of Surrey as quickly as originally planned, and that's an issue between the province and the city. It is not an SPS issue. The bottom line is there is a multi-year funding envelope, and the coming year's budget is part of that total funding. To single out one year's draft budget is simply playing politics and makes no sense. Instead of using the draft budget as a political prop, how about going through it thoroughly and with transparency. Less political theatre, and more financial facts."
Annis said like most people in Surrey, she is frustrated and wants to get on with the transition and have it completed as quickly as possible.
"It would help a lot if the mayor stopped trying to derail the transition in the hope of damaging the fledgling reputation of our new police service," said Annis. "And just to put some things in context, Surrey's cost for policing per person is about $470. In Delta it is $535 per person and over $620 per person in Vancouver. We are definitely understaffed when it comes to officers, which is why I want to add 300 new police officers over four years. Vancouver has more than 1400 while we have less than 900.
"If there is an election year message about the SPS draft budget and the mayor's toxic approach to the transition, it is this: thanks to Brenda Locke, the police transition is taking longer and costing more than it should."