After five years of twists and turns, next week will either bring clarity on Surrey’s policing situation — or escalate the situation to even higher levels of tension. 

All indications are that in the coming days, the provincial government will announce whether it finds the City of Surrey’s transition plan back to the RCMP sufficient, based on the requirements it put in place three months ago.  

Put another way, Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth could give a green light to Surrey keeping the RCMP, allowing them to hire 182 officers over the next 18 months while the Surrey Police Service winds down operations. 

While there would be tensions with the outgoing SPS and serious budgetary questions for the city, the story would likely recede from the provincial radar. 

Or. 

The province could determine that the city’s plan does not meet its conditions, in particular around the logistics of individual HR plans for SPS officers that would be laid off. 

It could argue the plan would imperil the overall safety of British Columbians, as Premier David Eby may have hinted at when he talked about RCMP recruitment challenges at the premier’s conference this week.   

And it could, through an order in council or change to the Police Act, take over jurisdiction of policing in Surrey. 

Three months ago, the province insisted it didn’t have the jurisdiction to choose Surrey’s police service outright. But a lot can change in three months. 

That could spur a lawsuit from the city — though publicly, Locke continues to demur on what her next steps would be.    

“I won’t go down that road yet, but I will tell you we will continue to negotiate with the province. Quite frankly, I will not take no for an answer,” she said on the Jas Johal Show. 

In the meantime, the drama continues: the mayor blocking the SPS union on Twitter became a hot topic on social media, with many comments expressing an incredulous tone to the entire situation.  

“Instead of focusing on a dynamic plan to develop areas and build more housing,” said the most liked comment on Reddit, “the last two mayors/councils have both been caught up in nonsensical wars that mostly involved their egos.”

There’s little doubt both Brenda Locke and Doug McCallum each passionately believed they were doing what was best for the city. 

But there’s also little doubt that there are plenty of arched eyebrows across the province around the whole situation.

Depending on events next week, that could continue for a while longer.