As extortion cases spiral in Surrey, the city’s mayor is now calling on the federal government to launch a full-scale national response to help stop the violence.
On Wednesday, Mayor Brenda Locke sent a letter to federal Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree, urging Ottawa to appoint a national extortion commissioner with the authority to coordinate police, governments, experts and community leaders across the country.
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“This is unlike anything Surrey has faced before,” Locke said in a press release.
“Residents and business owners are living in constant fear, and our communities cannot wait any longer.”
According to figures cited by the mayor’s office, reported extortions across Canada since 2023 are approaching 1,500.
Surrey alone has recorded 34 extortion cases — including at least eight confirmed shootings — in just the first three weeks of 2026.
“I have asked that the federal government look at this from a holistic perspective, because we have been going through this for three years. Are we going to be going through this for another three years? And another three years after that?” Locke told reporters on Wednesday, adding local policing agencies can only do so much.
Locke argues Canada’s laws are too weak and lack the tools to be able to “protect the public from the magnitude of extortion and violence.”
She believes the appointment of a national extortion commissioner should give someone the power to close gaps in criminal, immigration and citizenship laws, and “stop these crimes from happening.”
Locke is scheduled to discuss her recommendations at an upcoming federal meeting in Ottawa.
The mayor’s request for comments comes amid growing political pressure on the RCMP.
On Wednesday, Premier David Eby said the head of the B.C. The extortion task force needs to demonstrate a sense of urgency or step aside.
It followed remarks made by Assistant Commissioner John Brewer, who refused to label the extortion shootings in Surrey a “crisis” during a press conference on Tuesday.
Eby said Brewer’s comments “cut at public confidence” in the task force’s work and leadership.
Hours later, Brewer issued an apology, saying he did not mean to call into question the force’s commitment to the task.
Brewer said he was attempting to reassure the public during an update on the task force’s work, but acknowledged his remarks had the opposite effect.
In his apology, he added that the task force’s commitment to combating extortion “has not wavered,” and that extortion remains one of the RCMP’s top priorities.
Locke, meanwhile, described the situation as “without question, a crisis to us in the City of Surrey.”
With files from The Canadian Press.
