Vaughn Palmer: With reports circulating of unresolved issues, the new public safety minister may yet face challenges

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VICTORIA — The New Democrats must be hoping they’ve heard the last of the Surrey policing controversy with this week’s handover from the RCMP to the city’s Surrey Police Service.

The B.C. government spent 18 months in a desperate effort to bury the issue before the election.

They committed provincial taxpayers to covering an unprecedented $250 million in transition costs to placate Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke and her council majority, which wanted to keep the RCMP.

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Yet all the effort and public money failed to secure the NDP’s hold on Surrey, where it lost ground to the B.C. Conservatives.

Premier David Eby blundered when he intervened publicly in the negotiations, overshadowing the then public safety minister, Mike Farnworth.

The premier’s comments illustrate Eby’s misplaced self-assurance, even when he’s bluffing. Here’s what he said at a news conference on Oct. 23, 2023, when the provincial offer to Surrey was $150 million in transition funding.

“There is no more money. There is no more money. There is $150 million on the table. There is no more money.”

Three times in four sentences: There is no more money.

Eby’s “final offer” would be funny if it weren’t for what it would eventually cost........

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