The Surrey Crime Prevention Society will get a city grant after all, but for $200,000 less than it asked for. Metro Vancouver Crime Stoppers, on the other hand, received silence.
Mayor Brenda Locke said that council during its in-camera meeting on Monday afternoon decided to grant the society $100,000 and requested that city staff follow up with the society to request additional information.
“Following staff’s review of that information, council may consider additional funding to Surrey Crime Prevention Society,” she said.
“Council has also approved funding to Lookout Housing and Health Society in the amount of $44,000,” Locke added. “Staff will be reaching out to this group for additional information regarding the impact of their programs as well.”
READ ALSO: Controversy bubbling over Surrey council vote to ‘suspend’ 3 crime prevention grants
Surrey Connect councillor Rob Stutt told the Now-Leader on April 26 that the council majority’s vote to suspend $399,000 in grants for three crime-fighting organizations on April 22 was not a political move. Rather, he said, “This is us being responsible.
“We want to make sure that we know where our taxpayers’ money is going. It’s not a matter that we don’t want to give it to them, we just want to make sure, like in any business, you want accountability for your money.”
But rival Surrey First Councillor Linda Annis, who recused herself from voting because she is the executive director of one of the three (Metro Vancouver Crime Stoppers) said she “would not agree with that statement” and was “taken aback.”
“There was no rational answer given, so I don’t know what to make of it, quite frankly.”
During the city’s finance committee meeting on the afternoon of April 22, council “suspended” Surrey Crime Prevention Society’s ask for $300,000, Crime Stoppers’ ask for $55,000 and a $44,000 grant sought by Lookout Housing and Health Society — all three items listed under the category of crime prevention grants.
On Tuesday, Annis was further taken aback.
“The board chair of Crime Stoppers has sent a letter to the mayor asking for clarification on why the funding was suspended,” Annis told the Now-Leader. “As you can imagine, we were disappointed to hear that Surrey has decided to put our 40-year public safety relationship on hold, particularly with crime being a serious subject on the minds of everyone in communities right across the region.”
Annis noted Crime Stoppers is a “non-partisan” partnership of 28 municipalities, the provincial government, the RCMP and municipal police services which last year received 4,100 tips, with 335 of those gang-related, resulting in 16 gang members being arrested. Specific to Surrey, she said, Crime Stoppers received 336 anonymous tips in 2023 resulting in 12 arrests — among them three gang-related.
“In addition, Metro Vancouver Crime Stoppers has delivered ‘See Something, Say Something’ seminars and workshops in local schools to more that 75,000 students, including 26,742 students in 77 Surrey classrooms,” Annis said.
Meantime, Locke’s explanation was nondescript.
“As you know the two that were announced came from a closed meeting,” she told the Now-Leader on Tuesday. “What I can tell you is last year our council made a commitment to review our grants program to ensure taxpayer accountability. I just can’t comment on an issue from closed,” she added.
Annis said Surrey’s annual grant worked out to 6.25 per cent of Crime Stoppers’ budget. “Certainly in my time being with Crime Stoppers, and prior to me, we’ve received grants. I can’t say when the actually started but I’ve been with Crime Stoppers for over 13 years now and my predecessor, who was there for quite a few years, the organization was receiving grants then too, so it’s quite surprising.”
Asked if Crime Stoppers receives grants from other cities, Annis said that “We do from every city in Metro Vancouver. It’s based on a formula of 12 cents per resident living in the city. Now in Surrey, we actually, it’s not as much as that because Surrey is growing so rapidly and we had decided to maintain the status quo with Surrey.”
For smaller jurisdictions, she added, there’s a minimum fee of $2,500. “If it happens to be just a very small town, they would give us $2,500.
“So we get funding from what we call our partnership contributions, which is from all the cities and jurisdictions we serve and then in addition to that we get a community gaming grant, we get donations in, we have an annual golf tournament so we do events, so we get our funding from a multitude of different sources.”