A provincial task force was set up in September to deal with the issue.
There’s also a provincial tipline that encourages people to report extortion cases anonymously, and the City of Surrey has set up a $250,000 reward fund to encourage information that leads to extortion convictions.
Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke, whose council took the $250,000 reward money from its own budget, said she has been underwhelmed by the response from other levels of government on the issue.
Former MP Jinny Sims, meanwhile, has been public in asking for a co-ordinated response to the extortion crisis, saying community members feel not enough is being done to address it.
Now a radio host at Swift 1200 AM in Surrey, Sims saw her radio station itself targeted by a shooting that police have linked to extortion.
