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Bob Mackin 

A cruise ship’s first voyage of the season from Vancouver to Alaska was cancelled due to an apparent propeller malfunction.

Royal Caribbean’s Radiance of the Seas at Lynnterm in North Vancouver on April 27, 2024 (Mackin)

The Royal Caribbean Radiance of the Seas was originally scheduled to depart Vancouver’s Canada Place cruise ship terminal on April 26, but that was delayed until April 28. 

On April 27, however, the cruise line cancelled the trip as the vessel was docked at Lynnterm in North Vancouver. 

“Due to a technical issue, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the April 26 sailing. Guests will receive a full refund and 100% future cruise credit, and have been notified directly,” said a statement from Royal Caribbean. 

The Royal Caribbean Blog reported that the propulsion system was failing during the four-night cruise from Los Angeles to Vancouver. U.S. Customs and Border Protection restrictions meant passengers were forced to remain onboard. 

Last September, the same ship was temporarily taken out of service in Alaska due to problems with an azipod, or azimuth thruster pod propulsion system.

Between April 8 and 22, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a norovirus outbreak aboard the Radiance of the Seas. Sixty-seven of the 1,933 passengers and two of the 924 crewmembers were infected. 

The vessel was christened in 2001 in Germany and is registered in Bahamas. It holds up to 2,466 guests on its 13 decks. It contains a rock-climbing wall and nine-hole mini golf course, nine restaurants and 10 bars and lounges. 

Lynnterm, west of the Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Bridge, is not a cruise terminal. Instead, the four-berth, deep-sea facility specializes in handling and storage of forest products, steel and general cargo. 

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Bob Mackin  A cruise ship’s first voyage of

Bob Mackin 

A retired Mexican general is one step closer to being extradited from Canada.

B.C.-arrested Eduardo Leon Trauwitz

An April 28 announcement on the Attorney General’s Office of Mexico website said the B.C. Supreme Court had granted the extradition of Eduardo Leon Trauwitz, so he could stand trial in Mexico. The announcement said Trauwitz has 30 days to appeal. The decision had not been published on the B.C. courts website. 

The Mexican government alleges that Trauwitz, while working as head of security for state oil company Pemex, facilitated theft of 1.87 billion litres of hydrocarbons from clandestine taps in pipelines.

In February, the court heard that Trauwitz worked between 2014 and 2018 as Pemex’s head of the Assistance Division of Strategic Safeguard (ADSS), which was supposed to identify and disable clandestine taps in pipelines. 

A lawyer for the Canadian government, on behalf of Mexico, said that physical security agents were ordered to contravene official Pemex security policy. Instead of reporting the clandestine taps, so that they could be disabled, and then informing the public prosecutor’s office, a new protocol required them to conceal the discoveries, for fear of being fired or reported to Trauwitz. 

Trauwitz’s defence lawyers provided new evidence that they hoped would cast doubt on the credibility of the Mexican government’s case. That included a 2023 notarized statement from a former Pemex worker who recanted some of his 2017 and 2019 statements to prosecutors. However, one of the court’s top judges found there was enough to order Trauwitz returned to Mexico. 

Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes made the decision on April 25, but her reasons were not posted to the court website until April 29. 

“On the evidence in the extradition hearing, there is a prima facie [based on first impression] case that Mr. Trauwitz is the person sought for extradition, and that he engaged in conduct that, had it taken place in Canada, would have amounted to breach of trust by a public official, contrary to s. 122 [breach of trust] of the Criminal Code,” Holmes ruled.

Holmes decided Trauwitz met the Supreme Court of Canada’s test for an extradition order. Specifically, the case record provided by the Mexican government showed that Trauwitz was a public official who acted in a corrupt or dishonest purpose, contrary to the public good, and that he breached the standard of responsibility in a serious and marked departure from the expectations of his position. 

Holmes wrote that the procedure for dealing with clandestine taps changed around the time Trauwitz joined the company and became head of ADSS. Physical security agents were ordered and trained to disable the clandestine taps themselves, but not report the incidents beyond the ADSS department to Pemex services division or outside authorities. 

Mexico’s state oil company Pemex

The Mexican government’s case record said witnesses used various names for the new protocol, such as “plan casa mata,” “manejo tecnico,” and “the security protocol.”

“The [records of the case] include a large amount of circumstantial evidence from numerous physical security agents attributing the orders to Mr. Trauwitz,” Holmes wrote. “Almost all of these witnesses indicated that, when told by their managers to apply the new protocol, the managers said that the orders to do so came from Mr. Trauwitz.” 

Holmes found a reasonable inference that a “substantial effort was made to prevent the creation of written evidence of the new protocol.  The new protocol itself was not reduced to writing.”

Physical security agents received no certification or documentation about their training. They were told not to mention taps or disabling them in their daily written reports. 

“The evidence of these efforts to conceal the implementation of the new protocol reasonably supports an inference that the protocol was motivated by a purpose other than for the public good,” Holmes wrote.

Holmes, however, said that the evidence was “weak” that Trauwitz benefitted personally from the protocol.

“The ROCs contrast his annual salary from Pemex with his real estate purchases over the same period (which appear to have been substantially larger than his annual income alone would support). However, little else is said in the ROCs about Mr. Trauwitz’s financial situation to indicate whether the real estate purchases were financed, or whether he had independent or accumulated income or wealth.” 

Trauwitz’s lawyer Tom Arbogast told the court in December 2021 that his client had been the victim of a politically motivated prosecution by Mexican authorities.

Trauwitz’s original bail conditions included a $20,000 surety, requirement to live with his daughter, an 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew, around the clock wearing of an electronic monitoring device and regular reporting to a probation officer.

In May 2023, a judge approved Trauwitz’s move from Surrey to the Burquitlam area of Coquitlam.

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Bob Mackin  A retired Mexican general is one

For the week of April 28, 2024:

Canadian athletes campaigned for change, to end abuse and corruption in sport. 

They wanted a judicial public inquiry. Last December, Liberal Sport Minister Carla Qualtrough said they would get the Future of Sport in Canada Commission instead, with a deadline in 18 months.

More than four months since then, only the announcement of the $10.6 million budget. Meanwhile, the Paris Olympics are only three months away. “It’s not great timing, it should’ve been two years ago to get everything out in the open and start reform,” said Rob Koehler, the director general of Global Athlete.

Meanwhile, a decade after the Sochi Olympics doping scandal, the World Anti-Doping Agency is under fire for allegations that it covered up cheating by the Chinese Olympic swim team in 2021. It only came to light because whistleblowers went to journalists. Koehler said it is time for the governments that fund WADA to demand transparency and accountability. 

Koehler is Bob Mackin’s guest on this edition of thePodcast. 

Plus, this week’s Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines. 

CLICK BELOW to listen or go to TuneIn, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts.

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For the week of April 28, 2024: Canadian

Bob Mackin

Publicly, the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation blamed a “minor incident” for a one-day cancellation of the Stanley Park Railway’s Easter Train. 

But, internal messages obtained under the freedom of information law said what happened on March 29 was serious. Almost a month later, the board says it cost taxpayers $25,000.

Stanley Park Green locomotive (Hedgehog Technologies/Park Board/FOI)

“Looks like a major mishap (derailment) for the train happened as they were transporting it back to the barn after the day was over,” said a text message from John Brodie, acting director of business services, to general manager Steve Jackson at 5:52 p.m. on Good Friday. “Damaged tracks, damaged train, and [train operations lead] Rose [Yip] thinks we’ll likely need to cancel the remainder of the weekend. Kind of worst case scenario for the train.”

Ten minutes later, Brodie emailed the communications department to report “there was a derailment.”

At 9:59 p.m., the Park Board’s account on X, formerly Twitter, said the train would not operate March 30, “due to track damage sustained Friday evening.” It did not mention the word derailment. Refunds were offered, but the board hoped to resume service on Easter Sunday.  

At 6:38 a.m. the next morning, the board’s longer media statement cited a “minor incident on Friday evening causing damage to a section of track.” No employees were injured and visitors were not on-site. The statement also omitted the word derailment.

Jackson told Park Board officials at 8:39 p.m. that repairs were successfully completed in the morning and a decision was expected after the scheduled Technical Safety B.C. (TSBC) inspection at 7 a.m. on Easter Sunday. 

“Staff are planning to make a definitive communication on the reopening by 8:30 a.m. Sunday morning via direct contact through the ticketing provider and via our social media channels,” Jackson wrote.

Text message to the Park Board general manager on March 29 (Park Board/FOI)

TSBC gave the go-ahead to resurrect the special holiday service. However, the disabled-accessible carriage was removed from service because it was involved in the derailment. Jackson said it required further testing before it could be cleared for return to operation. 

“This work will be prioritized upon the end of the Easter event’s run,” Jackson wrote. “Staff have made contact with each of the families impacted and have made arrangements to make up for the disappointment caused through accommodations at a future event at the train.”

When contacted by a reporter, Jackson refused to comment on why the Park Board was not forthright about the derailment. Instead, marketing and communications specialist Megan Kaptein said “we considered the derailment a minor incident.” 

The price tag was not minor. Kaptein said the Park Board incurred $25,000 in costs. 

The Park Board’s aversion to telling the public it was a derailment echoed the May 30, 2022 SkyTrain incident near Scott Road station. Two cars from a four-car Mark II SkyTrain derailed, disrupting Surrey service for 24 hours. But TransLink downplayed the severity, calling the matter a “track issue” and then a “stalled train” before settling on the phrase “partially dislodged.”

“Given only one part of the train was dislodged from the track, it was more appropriate to refer to the incident as a partial dislodgment,” said TransLink spokesperson Tina Lovegreen. 

However, the internal investigation report in September 2022 referred to it as a derailment and the word appeared in the title: “Derailment Investigation at Switch DC 47.”

The Stanley Park Railway fell into disrepair during the pandemic. The Hallowe’en and Christmas events were cancelled in 2022 due to broken or worn out locomotives, carriages and tracks. It returned before last Christmas. Tickets sold out in 90 minutes. 

TSBC’s certificate of inspection from Nov. 27, 2023 said the Green locomotive (unit A7739) was repaired, reinspected and approved for public operations. Three other locomotives did not pass inspection. One of them had excessive oil leaking on the brake lining and another was suffering overheating and radiator issues. Five passenger cars were approved for public operations, but minor track ballast and gauge repairs remained. 

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Bob Mackin Publicly, the Vancouver Board of Parks

Bob Mackin 

“It’s nice to see federal political parties working together on something,” said Justice Gordon Weatherill April 22 in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver.

Justice Gordon Weatherill (LinkedIn)

Weatherill is presiding over a hearing scheduled to last seven days in which lawyers for the Liberal Party, Conservative Party and New Democratic Party are asking him to overturn a two-year-old ruling by an adjudicator with B.C.’s Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC). 

In a March 2022 ruling, former commissioner David Loukidelis decided that federal political parties are subject to the collection, use and disclosure requirements under B.C.’s Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA). The parties maintain they are under the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and Canada Elections Act.

The case was prompted by three B.C. residents who complained to the OIPC after they asked four registered parties in August 2019 for information about what personal information they possessed.

First up was Liberal Party lawyer Cathy Beagan Flood of the Toronto office of Blakes.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Sept. 25, 2020 (Flickr/PMO)

“The constitutional question raised by this judicial review is whether federal political parties’ communications with voters in the federal elections, for purposes of federal election campaigns, fall within federal or provincial jurisdiction,” Beagan Flood told the court. “We submit that the obvious answer to this question that it is federal, is the correct answer.” Parliament, she said, chose to give federal voters a right of access to their personal information held by Elections Canada, by the Chief Electoral Officer, but not a right of access to personal information held by political parties.

“Under provincial legislation, the complainants have a right to make these access requests. Under federal legislation, they would only have a right to make requests to Elections Canada,” Beagan Flood argued. “The Liberal Party, nevertheless, voluntarily gave the complainants access to their personal information. That personal information was primarily information that have been shared with the Liberal Party by Elections Canada, pursuant to the Canada Elections Act.”

Beagan Flood mentioned Bill C-65, which is in first reading before the House of Commons.

The amendments “will add further privacy provisions to the Canada Elections Act, however even if those amendments pass as currently drafted, it will remain the case that under federal law only Elections Canada will be subject to access to information requests and not the political parties.”

Lawyers for the Conservatives and NDP will also make their arguments before Weatherill. So will lawyers for the complainants, OIPC, B.C. Attorney General and federal Attorney General. 

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Bob Mackin  “It’s nice to see federal political

Bob Mackin 

The B.C. government has intervened in the receivership of the delayed Garibaldi at Squamish ski resort and says the B.C. Supreme Court has no jurisdiction to grant a reverse vesting order (RVO) to enable the sale.

Artist’s conception of the delayed ski resort on Brohm Ridge near Squamish (Garibaldi at Squamish)

In January, secured creditors Aquilini Development LP, Garibaldi Resort Management Co. Ltd. and 1413994 B.C. Ltd. offered $80.41 million for Garibaldi at Squamish Inc. (GAS Inc.) and Garibaldi at Squamish LP (GAS LP). The bid includes almost $73.5 million in GAS debt. The so-called stalking horse offer, designed to set a floor price, was the only one tendered to court-appointed receiver Ernst and Young (EY). 

GAS Inc. defaulted on $65 million owing to the three Aquilini companies, prompting the September 2023 receivership petition. 

In March, EY applied for court approval of the sale by RVO. A November 2022 article in Canadian Lawyer magazine explained that an RVO is a purchase of shares in a debtor company, so that the “bad assets – including liabilities and creditor claims – are removed, and the good assets stay in the company.”

On April 19, lawyers from the Dennis James Aitken firm, representing the provincial government, filed their opposition to a deal which would see all GAS liabilities moved to a new company that would then be bankrupted. 

“The Garibaldi RVO circumvents the authority of the Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship to approve a disposition of the licence of occupation, with or without additional requirements as conditions precedent, pursuant to the Land Act,” said the province’s filing. “The Garibaldi RVO seeks, wrongly, to nullify these provisions and the province’s constitutional obligation to consult with affected First Nations, including the Squamish Nation.”

If the court grants the order, the province wants an amendment to limit the release provisions to ensure preservation of potential claims for environmental remediation. 

Justice Paul Walker heard April 22 that the Squamish Nation is not objecting to the application or transaction.

EY said there was no other offer for the companies, which face a January 2026 deadline to begin construction under the provincial environmental assessment certificate (EAC). 

GAS Inc. was created in 2001 to transform 2,800 hectares of previously logged forest on Brohm Ridge into a four-season resort with accommodations and amenities. GAS does not own any physical assets. Its primary asset is an interim agreement with the province that gives GAS the right to pursue construction and development. It generates no income, instead relying on third-party funding.

EY determined the RVO is the best and only way forward. It said proceedings under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act are not a “viable path forward for the project, Garibaldi and Garibaldi’s stakeholders” and the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act is not “practical or reasonable in the circumstances.”

Roberto (left), Luigi, Francesco and Paolo Aquilini and Michael Doyle at the November 2018 opening of Elisa Steakhouse (Elisa/Facebook)

“Given the unique nature of this interim agreement, its interdependence on the EAC, and the corresponding considerable expenses, and the tight timeline to satisfy the pre-construction conditions, it is difficult to ascertain a value for the assets of Garibaldi,” said EY’s April 10 filing. “The interim agreement grants an intangible opportunity to build the project, at the significant cost and risk of the purchasers.”

The 2016-granted EAC was extended in 2021 with a deadline to begin construction in January 2026. Work has not begun and there is no allowance for another extension, meaning it would require a fresh application to proceed. 

The project, on Squamish Nation territory, faces 40 pre-construction conditions, eight of which are deemed urgent. They include old-growth management, archaeology plan, Brohm River management plan and a dam for a snowmaking reservoir. Work to satisfy the conditions would cost more than $5 million over the next 12 months. 

When it was approved in 2016, GAS was estimated to cost $3.5 billion with a 30-year, four-phase build resulting in 126 ski and snowboard runs, fed by 21 lifts and accommodation in 5,233 hotel, condo, townhouse and detached units. 

Disagreements between factions connected to the families that own the Vancouver Canucks (Aquilini) and Dallas Stars (Gaglardi) have held the project back. 

The two unsecured creditors are Northland Properties Ltd. and Garibaldi Resorts (2002) Ltd., who are owed $6.37 million and $13.8 million, respectively. 

Northland Properties owns Revelstoke Mountain Resort and Grouse Mountain. Founder and chairman Bob Gaglardi is also president of Garibaldi Resorts (2002) Ltd., the company whose secretary is Aquilini Investment Group founder Luigi Aquilini.

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Bob Mackin  The B.C. government has intervened in

Bob Mackin 

Vancouver’s empty homes tax helped the city achieve a $534 million surplus last year. 

But some of that could be coming at the cost of citizens’ privacy, said Mayor Ken Sim’s former chief of staff.

Kareem Allam (Twitter)

Kareem Allam went public on X, formerly known as Twitter, last week about the audit that he faces for the North False Creek condominium where he lives with his wife. He said city hall even wants to see his marriage licence in order to verify that he is the owner. 

“None of the city’s business who I’m married to,” said Allam, who also managed the ABC Vancouver party’s 2022 election campaign. “I just thought that was a bit of an intrusion of privacy.”

Under a city bylaw, owners of residential properties declared or deemed vacant must pay a 3% tax on the assessed value. The city’s 2023 statement of financial information said it collected $43.3 million in empty homes tax revenue last year. The city’s online staff directory shows 21 people employed in the vacancy tax branch, 11 of whom are compliance analysts and two are supervisors. Vacancy tax manager Deepak Saini was paid $131,883 last year. Operations supervisor Michael Tham was paid $93,838.

Allam left Sim’s office after three months in February 2023 to return to his communication, polling and lobbying company, Fairview Strategy. He said he understands why the tax is charged, but has concerns about the audit methods, which could include a house visit and inspection of a kitchen or bedroom.

“It’s a gross overreach of municipal authority,” Allam said. 

The provincial government has a similar annual declaration requirement under its speculation and vacancy tax, which charges a 0.5% rate for Canadian citizens or permanent residents who hold an empty residential property or 2% for foreign owners. 

“The province already has this data and information,” Allam said. “The more times data changes hands and goes through different databases, the more vulnerabilities you create.”

City of Vancouver spokesperson Phoenix Lam said nobody on staff was available for an interview. 

A statement from the city hall communications office said all declarations are subject to audit for up to two years after a declaration date and the audits are in line with provincial and federal tax program standards. If audited, owners are required by law to provide evidence to support their declarations. The city claims it “requests only the minimum number of documents required to verify a declaration.”

The city’s Vacancy Tax Compliance Policy Manual said that evidence reviews can involve a variety of documents, from a B.C. Assessment notice, homeowner’s insurance and cell phone bill to an ICBC vehicle registration and licence, utility bill and sworn affidavit. 

The city’s website said the tax office “does not collect, use, disclose, store, secure, or dispose of personal information in any manner that is unauthorized by the [Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act].” A limited number of privacy-trained staff are provided access to files on a secured system on city premises.

The city website does not mention the loophole in the privacy law. Section 33 sets out how a public body can disclose personal information, including sharing with another public body or law enforcement agency to assist in a specific investigation. That section allows, for instance, police to contact ICBC to seek information without a warrant about drivers and policyholders. 

Vancouver city hall (Mackin)

In 2019, an adjudicator with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner ruled that the Ministry of Finance was allowed to collect, use and disclose the name, address, date of birth, social insurance number and email address of individuals required to fill out the annual speculation and vacancy tax declarations. The adjudicator decided that, under Section 33, the personal information was necessary for administering the tax and allowed for disclosure to the Canada Revenue Agency.

Carson Binda, the B.C. director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said his organization does not only disagree with the audits, but the tax in general.

“You create more housing by swinging hammers, not by hiking taxes on folks, folks living and working in cities like Vancouver,” Binda said. “So we would urge the City of Vancouver to scrap the empty homes to stop these invasive and unacceptable audits that put people at risk.”

City hall, then ruled by Vision Vancouver, began charging a 1% empty homes tax in 2017. It was scheduled to rise to 5%, but the ABC supermajority voted in May 2023 to keep it at 3%. It also voted to waive $3.8 million in taxes for developers who had empty or unsold units.

Real estate taxes have been one of the weapons employed to combat dirty money in B.C.

In 2019, an Expert Panel on Money Laundering for the B.C. Ministry of Finance estimated $5.3 billion was laundered through B.C. real estate in 2018. A report by the former head of the RCMP for Western Canada, Peter German, said almost 14,000 residential properties worth more than $16.1 billion were “owned by individuals or entities with service addresses outside Canada, a fifth of which are in high-risk jurisdictions for money laundering.” 

German’s report also said 3% of B.C. titles were held by persons who list their occupation as student, homemaker or unemployed, and a quarter of them had clear title. 

“These tend to be expensive houses, with 88 houses over $10 million that are apparently owned by nominees,” the report said. 

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Bob Mackin  Vancouver’s empty homes tax helped the

For the week of April 21, 2024:

For several hours on April 13, the world watched and wondered: what next for the Middle East and beyond?

Colwood city councillor Ian Ward near the border of Israel and northern Gaza (Ian Ward)

While Israel’s war on the Iran-backed Hamas terrorists drags on in Gaza, Iran directly attacked Israel for the first time. The ally of China and Russia fired missiles and drones at the Jewish state, in retaliation for Israel’s April 1 bombing of Iran’s consulate in Syria, which killed seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members. 

A politician from Vancouver Island happened to be there. Colwood city councillor Ian Ward was near the end of a trip to meet survivors and visit sites of the Oct. 7 massacre.

Ward is Bob Mackin’s guest on this edition of thePodcast.

Plus, this week’s Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines. 

CLICK BELOW to listen or go to TuneIn, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts.

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For the week of April 21, 2024: For

Bob Mackin 

An NDP government-commissioned survey about Surrey found a high plurality of respondents disagreed with replacing the RCMP with the Surrey Police Service (SPS). 

“Just over two-in-five Surrey residents (42%) agree with the transition, while just under half (46%) disagree,” said the May 2023 survey by Research Co., obtained via freedom of information. “The transition is popular among residents aged 18-to-34 (65%) and aged 35-to-49 (50%) but drops among those aged 50-to-64 (22%) and those aged 65-plus (29%).”

(RCMP)

Ten percent of the 966 Surrey adults who responded to the May 24-31, 2023 online and telephone survey were undecided. The margin of error was plus/minus 3.1%, 19 times out of 20.

“Respondents of Indian descent are more likely to agree with the transition (63%) than those of European heritage (35%),” said the Research Co. report. “On a regional basis, agreement with the transition is highest in Fleetwood (53%), followed by Whalley/Centre (49%), South Surrey (40%), Newton (39%), Guildford (38%) and Cloverdale (35%).”

The poll came less than a month after the province’s director of policing services recommended Surrey continue with the switch to a municipal force, but set various conditions if it wanted to keep the RCMP. Almost two-in-five (39%) said they had changed their minds in the past month to become more likely to side with the RCMP and just over a third (34%) said their opinion was unchanged. Just over one-in-five (22%) changed their preference to the SPS. 

Almost two-thirds (64%), however, expressed fatigue, agreeing that the police transition issue is a mess and needs to be resolved one way or another. A majority (55%) said that the public should ultimately make the final choice, because “it is only up to Surrey residents to decide.”

“More than three-in-five Surrey residents (61%) think a referendum is a good idea, while 18% believe it is a bad idea.”

The top reason to keep the RCMP, chosen by three-in-four respondents, was the RCMP’s role as a Canadian institution and symbol of national identity. Agreement was lower, but still in majority territory, for all other reasons tested by Research Co. 

May 2019 photo of Patton (left), Coun. Linda Annis, McCallum, Guerra, Nagra and Elford. (Annis is a member of Surrey First)

Those included: Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke’s pro-RCMP promise to voters (67%), the RCMP’s job of keeping Surrey safe from crime (66%), policing is a decision for Surrey residents, not provincial politicians (65%), the high cost of switching (62%) and the opinion that the SPS is a failed experiment created in a flawed and secretive process (61%). 

On the other side of the ledger, smaller majorities agreed with three reasons to continue the switch: the hiring of hundreds of staff and expenditure of millions of dollars on SPS (61%), local recruitment for the new force (52%) and the understaffed RCMP’s 1,500 province-wide vacancies (51%). 

Forty-six percent of respondents agreed with the transition to the municipal force due to the province’s $150 million, five-year subsidy offer and the ability to avoid $72 million in severance costs if the SPS had to be shut down. 

In July 2023, Solicitor General Mike Farnworth said Surrey did not meet the director of policing services’ conditions and ordered the SPS to replace the RCMP. He offered $150 million to Surrey city hall over five years to facilitate the transition. 

Locke and her Surrey Connect majority stuck to their 2022 campaign promise to keep the RCMP, so the NDP majority amended the Police Act in October to accelerate the SPS replacement of the RCMP. 

City of Surrey applied to B.C. Supreme Court for a judicial review, aimed at overturning the province’s decision, because it estimated Surrey taxpayers would shoulder an extra $464 million over the next 10 years. Surrey rejected the province’s $110 million additional offer to settle out of court, so hearings will go ahead as scheduled beginning April 29. RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme wrote April 12 to Farnworth, to say that despite the province’s move to overrule Surrey and mandate the transition, there is no authority for RCMP members to work under the command of municipal officers. 

Meanwhile, the poll also found that 55% of Surrey residents felt the province is on the right track and 53% felt the government is on the right track. 

“The issues that get the most mentions from Surrey residents are cost of living/affordability/inflation (68%), health care (47%), housing/price of real estate (39%), crime/public safety (29%) and homelessness (24%).”

Ninety percent were very or somewhat concerned about crime in Surrey. 

A previous Research Co. survey of 704 adults in January 2023 found cost of living and affordability was the top issue for 43% in Surrey, followed by crime and public safety (20%) and housing prices and real estate (15%). At the time, relatively few respondents were concerned about healthcare (8%), gas prices (4%) and addictions and the opioid crisis (3%).

The ruling NDP holds seven of the nine Surrey seats. A 10th riding will be added in October’s provincial election. 

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Bob Mackin  An NDP government-commissioned survey about Surrey