Five new Surrey Police Board appointees named<\/p>\n
Published 11:00 am Tuesday, March 24, 2026<\/p>\n
The provincial government has appointed five new people to the Surrey Police Board, making for nine altogether.<\/p>\n
The new volunteers will serve for 12 months, ending March 31, 2027.<\/p>\n
The board\u2019s next meeting is set for April 30.<\/p>\n
Joining chairman Harley Chappell, provincial appointee James Carwana and Surrey council appointees Rob Stutt and Archie Johnston, the five new appointees are retired Surrey fire chief Larry Thomas, Jaswinder Sidhu (regional vice-president, Bank of Montreal), George Duncan (former CAO of Richmond), Hanne Madsen (former executive director of Big Sisters of B.C.\/Lower Mainland), and Parminder Jawanda (former vice-president of Rogers Communications).<\/p>\n
A B.C. government bulletin states the appointees were chosen by \u201caligning individual skills, competencies and attributes with the needs and responsibilities of the board, and to reflect the diversity of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPolice board responsibilities include establishing the priorities, goals and objectives for the police service, serving as employer of all police department personnel, and developing and submitting the policing budget to council for approval each year,\u201d it reads.<\/p>\n
The bulletin notes that since June 2017 there\u2019s been close to an 100 per cent increase in visible minorities serving on B.C. municipal police boards with 25 per cent described as \u201cpeople of colour,\u201d up from 12.5 per cent.<\/p>\n