Incumbent mayor Brenda Locke under renewed scrutiny over termination of Surrey police chief

Incumbent Surrey mayor Brenda Locke is facing renewed scrutiny days before the election about what advance knowledge, if any, she had earlier this year when the police board moved to terminate then-Police Chief Norm Lipinski at a closed meeting.

Surrey mayoral candidate Mike Starchuk noted Tuesday that councillor Rob Stutt, a member of Locke’s Surrey Connect party, was chair of the May 29 meeting and needs to address whether he ever spoke to Locke about the purpose of the meeting ahead of time.

“Rob Stutt doesn’t need a judge to answer this. He was in the chair. Either he talked to the mayor about that meeting or he didn’t,” Starchuk said in a news release. “Surrey deserves to know before it votes. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”

Postmedia’s request for an interview with Locke was not granted Tuesday. Instead, the Surrey Connect party released a statement.

“Mayor Locke has no involvement in HR matters. All staff decisions at the SPS are made by the Surrey police board, which is independent of the city and the mayor,” the party stated.

Starchuk confronted Locke at a candidates debate on CKNW last week, where Locke acknowledged she knew the board was having an important meeting that day.

“Did I know what was in it? Not really,” Locke said.

That answer is not good enough for Starchuk, who has repeatedly asked the Surrey Connect leader for transparency.

“‘Not really’ is not a ‘no,'” Starchuk said in the release.

The Imagine Surrey candidate is not the only one going after Locke on the topic. Surrey First’s Linda Annis, who has been an opponent of Locke’s for years on council, said that if she is elected she will carry out an anti-corruption review at city hall.

Annis said that residents have many questions about land purchases and stop-work orders, in addition to Lipinski’s termination prior to the completion of the transition from the RCMP to a municipal police force.

“There are too many questions, and the rumours have lingered too long to be ignored. People in Surrey need to know the truth, whatever the facts are and wherever the truth leads,” Annis said in a news release. “They also need to know city procedures and processes are fair and above board.”

Harley Chappell was the chair of the police board at the time, but was not present at the meeting where Lipinski’s termination was decided.

Lipinski served as the first chief of the Surrey Police Service from 2020 until June of this year when he was abruptly terminated without cause by the police board. The decision was made by the newly formed board that had been on the job for fewer than 10 weeks.

In October 2025, Lipinski’s contract was renewed for another three years, with an option to extend it for an additional two years.

Five of the board members were new and had been appointed by the province in consultation with the City of Surrey led by Locke, who had unsuccessfully fought to retain the RCMP.

Late last month, Lipinski filed a petition in B.C. Supreme Court to overturn his termination, claiming his firing was unlawful and invalid, and was motivated by “extraneous political considerations.”

Lipinski’s petition argues that Locke sought to remove Lipinski, stating that in December 2023 she met with the temporary administrator of the Surrey police board, retired Abbotsford police chief Mike Serr, and expressed that she did not like that Lipinski was chief constable, and was unhappy with Lipinski’s spouse.

None of the allegations made has been tested in court and no response to the petition had been filed as of Tuesday, according to online court records.

The board refused to disclose Lipinski’s severance package, but a portion of his termination letter was included in the petition. That letter reveals that Lipinski was offered severance of 18 months of his annual salary of $375,000, which would amount to $562,500. The board also offered an additional three months of salary, nearly $94,000, if he agreed to the termination.

Locke was asked about the former police chief’s petition at a campaign announcement on Oct. 1.

“The judicial review is to the police board, it isn’t to the city of Surrey or to myself, so I have nothing I can say about it,” she said.

Voters will choose their next mayor and council on Oct. 17.

With files from Gordon Hoekstra