What about Barnston Island?

Surrey’s getting a new police force to replace the RCMP, which is currently responsible for policing the unincorporated Fraser River island situated a very short ferry ride across Parson’s Channel from a dock in Port Kells.

But how does this island – with 545 hectares privately held, and 54.6 belonging to the Katzie First Nations Reserve – fit in to this picture?

Lisa Anderson, assistant deputy minister for the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General, says that’s still being worked out.

“That’s an unincorporated area, and policing responsibility rests with the province for that. Right now it’s being policed by Surrey RCMP, with an agreement with the province and so that’s another area that will need to be looked at, and agreements put into place,” she said.

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“We’ll continuing on doing our work in establishing an inventory of all the varying memorandums of understanding and information sharing agreements that the provincial ministries have with the RCMP to make sure there’s no gaps in service moving forward, and that all those aspects are looked after.”

Anderson said there is a “whole series of other work” that’s “well underway” that extends beyond the City of Surrey directly as a result of the policing transition.

“And so in many of those cases there is provincial responsibility there.”



tom.zytaruk@surreynowleader.com

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City of Surrey