Surrey Connect Councillor Rob Stutt says council majority’s vote to suspend $399,000 in grants for three crime-fighting organizations on April 22 was not a political move.
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) says she “would not agree with that statement” and is “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.
This happened after council approved a motion presented by Councillor Pardeep Kooner, seconded by Stutt, to suspend all funding to the three “until council has had the opportunity to re-evaluate the utilization and magnitude of the funding provided by the city. This is particularly critical during this time of overall city pressures inclusive of policy.”
Safe Surrey Coalition Councillor Doug Elford said he’s “really challenged” by Kooner’s “last-second motion,” saying these organizations “all do good work” and it’s “fairly late” in the year, budget-wise, to be doing this.
He asked about mechanisms to restore the funding, to which Kam Grewal, Surrey’s general manager of finance, replied that the $399,000 will be considered “unallocated until council decides what to do with it.”
Councillor Mandeep Nagra, also of SSC, disagreed with Kooner’s motion. “I’m shocked as well,” he said, and questioned its intent.
Kooner replied that a second review should not be a problem and that she’s not asking that the three organizations not be funded, but rather “to have a conversation to review the issues that have come up in the public safety committee, that have come up multiple times for years and that have never been addressed.”
Her motion passed with Nagra and Elford opposed. Surrey First Councillor Mike Bose voted in favour but then flipped his vote at the evening meeting.
Stutt later told the Now-Leader that questions arose during a presentation by the Surrey Crime Prevention Society at a public safety committee meeting that the council majority want answered.
“Bear in mind that their grant is the largest the city gives, and we’ve been granting them since 1982, so it’s over $4 million. We want to make sure that we’re being fiscally responsible and our money is being put to good use, and we wanted measurables. We appreciate what they do, don’t get us wrong, we absolutely appreciate what these programs do, but they say we’ve done 5,000 hours, well, doing what? There was three grants that fell under that particular heading of public safety, and we’re going to review them all.”
However, Annis said a letter Mayor Brenda Locke subsequently sent to her board chairman didn’t mention what council is seeking in the way of new information and included no remedy for how the grant could be secured.
“To me, if it was about transparency, there would be something in that letter that would say ‘your grant has been suspended at this time because we need the following material,’” Annis said. “The other piece that troubles me is that we submit our grants in the fall, why would it get pulled the day of the finance committee meeting after it was recommended by staff?”
Annis said she attended that same public safety committee meeting, listened to the Surrey Crime Prevention presentation, “and I thought they were quite clear about what they do, how they motivate the kids and provide them with volunteer opportunities around public safety and they gave several examples of some of the things that they do. I thought it was quite clear, so I’m not sure why he (Stutt) would feel that way.”
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Still, Stutt maintains, “this is not political.
“This is us being responsible, and it is in no way whatsoever tied to the police transition. We have to have measurable outcomes of their activities – we’re not saying they’re not doing them, they’re not reporting them. 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 especially when it’s that much, and it’s most of their budget, by the way.”
Volunteer safety is also a concern he said, particularly related to the crime prevention society.
“You’ve got these young people out-and-about, and we have had inquiries about who’s supervising them,” Stutt said. “Understandably, by the very benefit that they give to us, they could be placing themselves in harm’s way, so we want to make that there is a safe, responsible supervision, and that came up in line with the financial aspects for it. The ball’s in their court; if they bring us the financials, we’ll review it.”
Meantime, Annis noted that in 2023, Metro Vancouver Crime Stoppers received more than 4100 tips including 335 gang tips that resulted in arrests of 16 gang members.
“In. 2023 we received 336 anonymous tips for Surrey resulting in 11 arrests relating to gun and gang activity. In addition, Metro Vancouver Crime Stoppers has delivered ‘See something say something’ seminars and workshops in Metro Vancouver schools to more than 75,000 students,” she said.