THUNDER — The Thunder Bay Police Services Board is under inspection and it's just one of the reasons for the workload they say has made them the second busiest police board in Ontario, behind only Toronto.
“I’m sure you’re aware that the inspector general has indicated we’re under inspection because we’re not moving as we should be moving and that’s my words. I’m not saying necessarily that’s what he’s saying, but there’s obviously some breakdown,” said board chair Karen Machado.
“There’s more work than we have capacity for including with our current staffing structure. We also, myself and the vice chair, met with the inspector general when he was in here in December and had some dialogue and they recognize we are the second busiest board in the province of Ontario behind Toronto.”
Looking at size and capacity issues, she said they are only a fraction of that service but still have as much work as they do.
“We have a lot of focus on us. We have a lot of work to do that we just don’t have the capacity to do,” said Machado.
The board is creating a new position – executive director – to help manage its workload going forward.
“We have too much work. We want to do good. We want to make that progress. We want to build relationships, build that trust back and in order for us to do that and focus as a board, we need someone to lead us through that way and that’s what this position will do,” said Machado.
The new full-time role will replace the existing position of board administrator.
Since they will still have to build the position and job specifications, post it out, do interviews, make an offer and do contract negotiations, said Machado, they don’t expect to hire anyone until hopefully before the other contract is over in possibly June or July.
“The salary they will get will be a half and then maybe minor overlap so that there’s some orientation and training,” said Machado.
The board expects to receive the inspector general’s report this year, said vice chair Denise Baxter.
She said that she believes “evaluation is always a good thing, because it provides another opportunity for other sets of eyes to look at what you’re doing. Are you actually progressing along the best path? And so, it was actually very welcome news to hear that we were having someone take a close look at what we were doing.”
She said she is most appreciative that it’s lining up with the implementation of the Community Safety and Policing Act, which came into effect in April 2024, and said they have inspector Tom Gervais, who is working with them pretty closely.
“I do think it will help set some direction, but I also think that we are on the right direction,” said Baxter.
Baxter said the matter will be coming before the board next month.
