Surrey, B.C. (February 19, 2026): Surrey First councillor and candidate for mayor Linda Annis says the provincial government should support Chief Norm Lipinski’s call for more time to transition the Surrey Police Service takeover of policing in Cloverdale.

 

“The extortion crisis means that more than 40 SPS officers have been deployed to investigative teams, which has impacted overall staffing,” said Annis. “Giving the SPS another four months to take over policing in Cloverdale makes sense under the circumstances and the provincial government should take Chief Lipinski’s concerns seriously.”

 

Annis said the police transition, which is now in year eight, should have been completed years ago, but was derailed when Brenda Locke stopped it and took the provincial government to court to oppose the move to the SPS.

 

“Because of Brenda Locke, the transition has taken years longer than it should have and cost more as a result,” noted Annis. “At every turn, she has tried to cancel the transition and that hurts public safety in our city. Like everyone in Surrey, I want the transition completed as quickly as possible, but I also want it done without putting public safety at risk because our SPS officers are too stretched.”

 

Annis says public safety needs to be the city’s number one priority.

 

“Without a safe city, nothing else matters,” said Annis. “That’s why I want to add 300 new officers over four years. Meanwhile, the Justice Institute is not able to keep up with the growing demand for more municipal police officers, which is why I want the provincial government to build a police training centre here in Surrey that will help train more officers and deploy them quicker.”

 

Annis also wants police to have 24/7 real time access to city traffic cameras and wants to add 600 police-specific cameras to fight crime.

 

“The SPS has stepped up with officers to focus on the extortion crisis, so giving them a few extra months to complete the takeover of policing in Cloverdale should not even be an issue,” said Annis. “The SPS is here on the ground and when they say there is a staffing issue and that they are stretched, I take that seriously, and so should Victoria.”