THUNDER BAY — If the municipal police force is to be responsible for patrolling a sizable piece of Lake Superior, the city's police chief and the board that oversees the service say they need more clarity.
“I think if we're looking at a full-blown marine unit, it has to be capable of doing the things that are required, which is going to be intense and pretty heavy,” police chief Darcy Fleury told reporters after the meeting on Tuesday.
“So, we'll have to have more conversations on that with the city and also with the federal and provincial partners.”
The Community Safety and Policing Act, which replaced the decades-old Police Services Act as the law that governs municipal police forces and policing standards, has new language around how far a police service’s marine coverage area needs to be. In the case of cities with a shoreline, that now extends to the nearest international boundary.
For Thunder Bay, that’s the Canada-U.S. border that runs through Lake Superior.
At its May meeting, the police board agreed to have the City of Thunder Bay’s intergovernmental affairs committee bring the issue of marine policing, and a number of other items, to the attention of provincial ministers at this summer’s Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference in Ottawa.
Currently, city police have a memorandum with the OPP which allows the municipal force to request the OPP’s underwater search and recovery unit and/or marine unit services. Thunder Bay police haven't had their own marine unit for a long time.
Back in February, the board also decided to solicit more information about the new provincial legislation’s language before drafting a revised marine policing policy.
“Basically, the conversation … is around our responsibility on the water,” Fleury said.
Another item slated to make its way to AMO is the longstanding issue of a new police headquarters, which has been on the back burner for a couple of years now, despite a renewed push for one earlier this decade.
“The need is still there,” Fleury said. “We have had some preliminary conversations since my arrival as to what that looks like, and I believe the city is fully understanding and fully aware of our needs.”
“We're working towards getting that done.”
