Mayor of Surrey, B.C., rejects ‘extraordinarily excessive’ police budget

SURREY — The mayor of Surrey, B.C., says she won’t support a provisional budget request for the city’s police force, calling a $91-million increase in funding “extraordinarily excessive.”

Brenda Locke, who strongly opposed the city’s transition from the RCMP to its own municipal police, says that the budget for the Surrey Police Service would necessitate an 18-per-cent property tax hike if it were approved.

Locke says Surrey taxpayers cannot afford the provisional 2026 budget request of more than $330 million from the provincially appointed Surrey Police Board that was released on Tuesday night.

The Surrey Police Board says in a release in response to Locke’s statements that it hopes the mayor and council reconsider the proposed budget, adding that it had expected the municipal government to undertake “ongoing dialogue” and work collaboratively to resolve the issue.

Locke won the 2022 municipal election after pledging to reverse a transition to a municipal force that was already underway.

She battled the British Columbia government over the issue, including going to the courts, before the transition was ultimately forced through by the province.

In her latest statement, Locke says she remains “committed to supporting a meaningful increase in funding to hire additional officers” to support the transition, but she cannot support the budget “as presented.”

“It is extraordinarily excessive, and Surrey taxpayers cannot afford it,” she says in the statement, noting that council had previously secured $250 million in provincial funding to address “anticipated increased costs” from the police transition.

“Surrey taxpayers want to see action to improve public safety, and we’re prepared to make those investments. But they also expect us to be prudent with public money and avoid significant tax hikes at a time when affordability remains a top priority.”

The police board says its role is to “determine what is required for adequate and effective policing” and to finish the transition, and other municipalities typically see a collaboration during the review of the budget’s initial draft.

“Unfortunately, the mayor appears to want to take a different approach,” the board says in its statement, adding that it has requested a joint meeting to review the budget in an effort to avoid a property tax increase.

“With all of the things happening in the city — including public safety concerns about extortions and Mayor Locke’s call for 150 additional police officers to counter extortions — the people of Surrey will want to understand how these will be resourced and to see their board and council working together to ensure the policing budget meets their policing priorities,” the statement says.

Surrey councillor Linda Annis — who is challenging Locke for the mayor’s position in next year’s municipal elections — accused the mayor of “doing everything she can to delay and derail” the police transition and “damage the reputation” of the municipal force.

Annis calls the objection to the provisional budget another of the mayor’s “anti-SPS political footballs” while also blaming the rising costs on Locke’s 2022 attempt to reverse the transition.

“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,” Annis says, while noting that Surrey Police finished with a $25-million surplus this year.

“To single out one year’s draft budget is simply playing politics and makes no sense.”

Locke says Surrey municipal staff and council will now “conduct all proper due diligence to review and scrutinize” the provisional police budget.

The provisional budget document released by Surrey City Hall shows the proposed increase in requested funding comes largely from a 36-per-cent jump in “salaries and benefits,” accounting for about $62 million of the increase.

“For 2026, a total net budget of $331,515,621 is required for adequate and effective policing and law enforcement in Surrey,” the provisional budget document says. “Key priorities include hiring additional sworn members, expanding civilian staff, and building technology infrastructure to support municipal policing.”

Surrey police recently expanded its jurisdiction to all of South Surrey and anticipates the transition to be complete at some point in 2026-2027.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 3, 2025.

The Canadian Press