PREMIER John Horgan told The VOICE this week that he’s not blocking Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum’s plans for a municipal police force and SkyTrain instead of LRT.

He said: “I met with Mayor McCallum not that long ago. Of course, I spoke with him in 2018 by phone about some of his policy suggestions. We are absolutely open to discussions around policing. Public safety is critically important to all of us.”

He added: “Mr. McCallum will have to demonstrate to Mike Farnworth, the Minister for Public Safety, how a changing from an RCMP force to a municipal force will be cost-effective and meet the needs of the community. That’s up to him to explain to us, not the other way around. And he understands that; I had a good conversation with him on that.”

Horgan told me: “With respect to SkyTrain and LRT, I am indifferent to the technology. I just want to make sure we’re providing service here in Surrey and I have only so much money to spend and we’ve already increased our contribution from 33 per cent of the total bill to 40 per cent and that reduces costs for people in Surrey and Vancouver and Richmond and around the region.

“And so if Mr. McCallum has a plan, I have not yet seen it, about how he’s going to make this work, I have no problem with that. I just want to get going. I think the people in Surrey want to get going, too. Let’s build something and let’s start yesterday. And so when Mr. McCallum and the Mayors’ Council figure out how they want to proceed then we are ready to go, because my concern about that is that there is a perception that we are somehow blocking things … not at all. Show me the plan.”

– RATTAN MALL