Only Proudly Surrey’s Bold Plans Can End Surrey’s Constant Public Servant Shortage
“Pulling out of PSEA, TransLink and the RCMP is a practical solution to one of Surrey’s biggest problems,” Diaz explains
“For more than a decade, Surrey has suffered from a shortage of RCMP officers, educational assistants, bus drivers and teachers. That shortage is not because we don’t have the money to pay public servants. It’s because of bad agreements our governments need to get out of,” explained Pauline Greaves, Proudly Surrey’s standard-bearer for mayor, a PhD in educational administration and a business instructor at Langara College.
Greaves explained that although Surrey can afford to hire more teachers and educational assistants, not only are teaching staff allocated provincially; the wages and benefits they receive are set at a provincial level. “We recognize that Surrey teachers face unique challenges that are not faced by teachers everywhere. The same is true of our educational assistants but we are trapped in a provincially-imposed agreement that does not let us compete with other school boards to lure the best teachers from elsewhere in BC, Canada, the US and overseas,” stated School Trustee candidate Dean McGee. “That’s why we want out of the Public Sector Employers Council, the provincial authority that usurped local school boards’ bargaining power back in the late 90’s. Two decades of provincial bargaining haven’t just led to understaffing and uncompetitive teacher wages. They have led to litigation and labour chaos.”
Proudly Surrey has obtained a legal opinion that, even if Education Minister Rob Fleming will not allow Surrey to exit PSEA, common law rights may have accrued to local school boards in North America, given that they existed as autochthonous governmental authorities prior either to the Royal Proclamation of 1763, arguably existing as an implicit part of the document creating British North America, a document successfully used in arguments favouring pre-existing aboriginal rights and common law rights of indigenous peoples.
“By the same token,” Greaves added, “new RCMP officer hires that are promised by local politicians often do go through. Our force temporarily gains fifty or a hundred officers but then loses as much as a third or half of their new recruits through RCMP transfer policies that allow officers to receive less stressful assignments in smaller municipalities for essentially the same salary. We recognize that Surrey has major, major challenges that demand more from officers. The only way to actually reach officer parity with Delta is to create a local force with superior wages and benefits and from which, one cannot simply transfer to another city. Our city ran a $300 million budget surplus this year. There is simply no reason we cannot set up a police force that can effectively recruit and retain officers.”
The party has already issued a major statement on its “CisLink” proposal earlier this week but Greaves added, “We did not, at that time, have the space to remind voters that we can have a more multilingual fleet of drivers, permanent desks in our major stations and exchanges for qualified professionals to help with directions and security and local police rather than special transit law enforcement keeping our passengers safe.”