THUNDER BAY — The interim administrator of the Thunder Bay Police Services Board has chaired the first meeting since his appointment by the Ontario Civilian Police Commission.
"There has been a lot of stress in the community. My principal goal is to help the board move forward on matters that are important to the community," Malcolm Mercer said Tuesday after the meeting ended.
Mercer was appointed "to ensure the TBPSB is providing sufficient oversight of police services...and to reestablish public confidence in the TBPSB and Thunder Bay Police Service's ability to deliver adequate and effective policing services to the community," the OCPC said in a statement last month.
Three board members – Councillor Kristen Oliver, provincial appointee Roydon Pelletier, and provincial appointee Michael Power – subsequently resigned, leaving only sitting members Mayor Bill Mauro and municipal appointee Georjann Morriseau.
Councillor Shelby Ch'ng was appointed last month by council to replace Oliver, but she is on a leave of absence while she runs in the provincial election.
Mayor Mauro participated in the discussions at Tuesday's meeting, while Morriseau was logged in online but did not ask questions or make comments.
She has made multiple allegations regarding her treatment at the hands of both the police board and senior police administration.
Reports presented at the meeting included an update on the action plan the board released in February to address issues of civility and respect in the workplace.
"I thought it was a good meeting," Mercer said in an interview. "I thought it was valuable to hear the reports, both for the benefit of myself and for the community."
Under the heading Harassment in the Workplace: A Shift in Culture, the board heard that external investigators have now been hired to conduct harassment investigations, and that the Thunder Bay Police Service's human resources manager recently completed Workplace Investigation Training.
The HR manager conducts a majority of internal harassment investigations.
The training focused on fundamentals including collecting and assessing evidence, witness interviews, effective investigation processes, and ensuring investigations hold up under scrutiny.
Further training is in the works.
TBPS has also engaged an external consultant to implement harassment training for all supervisors.
Chief Sylvie Hauth provided Mercer and the board with a progress report on the implementation of numerous recommendations from the Office of the Independent Police Review Director concerning sudden death investigations.
A report released in March highlighted concerns about how some sudden death investigations have been handled.
Hauth said that as of this month, the inspector of the Criminal Investigation Branch and the regional coroner are speaking weekly to ensure continuous communication.
She stressed the importance of establishing a Forensic Pathology Unit in Thunder Bay, as recommended by the OIPRD, citing the time and resources required to conduct post-mortems in Toronto.
So far, there's no commitment from the province to set up a unit in Thunder Bay to handle cases in Northwestern Ontario, however TBPS now has an arrangement with the Toronto Police Service for assistance from TBPS when post mortems are conducted in that city.
When feasible, she said, TBPS staff "serve as our eyes and ears" during these examinations.
Mercer, who has sole authority to make decisions on behalf of the board, gave his approval to a proposed $64,000 maximum budget for work to be undertaken this year by the expert panel appointed by the TBPSB in March.
It will advise the board on policies going forward, and help it complete outstanding recommendations from the OIPRD and OCPC.
Mercer said the panel will help develop the board's expertise as well as insight into the community's needs.
"That's important and good work. It's probably even more relevant now than it was in March. It costs money, and the issue today was to hear the upset limit, and that appears to me to be necessary money well-spent."
Mayor Mauro asked about prospects for the province to fill the vacancies on the police board in the near future.
Mercer noted that the province's solicitor general is entitled to appoint interim members, but he expects decisions in that regard won't be made until after next month's provincial election.
In an interview after the meeting, the mayor said he felt the meeting "went fine, pretty smooth...he's here doing the job he was asked to do."
Mauro previously stated that he strongly disagreed with the appointment of an administrator, but said he had an opportunity to meet with Mercer recently.
At Tuesday's meeting, he asked that any future OIPRD or OCPC reports take into consideration the cost implications of their recommendations.
"We didn't blink. We took it on and are moving forward," he said in reference to previous reports, but "much of the work that we are doing through these reports has a financial cost to it, being borne by the taxpayer. I wanted to ensure the administrator was aware of that, and we had a couple of examples of that today."
