Three years after the B.C. government used extraordinary powers to force Surrey to follow through on its transition to a municipal police force, the province is trying to distance itself from the inevitable messy fallout.

Premier David Eby responded to news that the Surrey police board had abruptly fired chief Norm Lipinski Tuesday by expressing exasperation at how often he’s called upon to intervene in the city’s policing affairs.

“I had a conversation with the mayor a number of months ago, and in that conversation, I said to the mayor that the province of B.C. has been too involved in policing in Surrey for too long, that it’s time for the local community to take responsibility for their own police force,” Eby told reporters.

“She agreed, and we worked together on appointments that both the province and the city could support moving forward for vacancies on the police board, those local decisions about who the police chief is, policy priorities are the kinds of decisions that local police boards are intended to make and should make.”

The NDP government clearly wants to avoid getting further sucked into Surrey municipal politics on the eve of the October local elections. But it’s a bit late to shove off responsibility for the police transition woes.

It was only four months ago that the province struck a deal with Surrey to let five board appointees lapse and replace them with new members chosen in partnership with the mayor’s office.

Board chair Harley Chappell, the chief of the Semiahmoo First Nation, publicly expressed “surprise” at the government’s lack of consultation and the timing during an ongoing extortion crisis.

Chappell was blindsided again after the newly constituted board fired Lipinski at a Friday meeting he did not attend and had been told would not contain any motions.

Chappell quit Tuesday, and in his resignation letter, obtained by CBC News, cited “political tentacles and pressures” reaching into the independent police board.

Most likely that comes from Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke, who has clashed with Lipinski in the past and just last month publicly chastised him for disbanding the gang unit during a murder spree.

That does not let the province off the hook.

Throughout the long sordid affair of Surrey policing, the B.C. government has repeatedly cited its legal responsibility for ensuring the community’s safety and trust in policing.

That’s why then-solicitor general Mike Farnworth rejected Locke’s plan to bring back the RCMP in 2023. It’s why Farnworth used rare powers under the Police Act months later to force Locke to continue the transition to the municipal force. It’s why the NDP government later changed the law to ensure the move couldn’t be reversed.

It’s also why the province appointed transition managers, demanded reports, set timelines, provided $250 million in financial support and, yes, ensured it had at least some control of the police board to make sure the whole endeavour did not disintegrate and put the community at risk.

Lipinski in February asked the B.C. government to delay the transition from the RCMP to SPS in Cloverdale earlier this year, citing the unprecedented extortion crisis. The province said no.

Now the chief is out, the crime rate is up, extortion-related shootings continue, and the board that the province helped put in place has flunked its first test in upholding public confidence.

The government can’t just wash its hands of the entire affair. All of this reflects back on it too.

Rob Shaw has spent more than 18 years covering B.C. politics, now reporting for CHEK News and writing for BIV. He hosts the weekly show Political Capital and has a NEW daily podcast, Political Capital Daily.

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