THUNDER BAY -- The Thunder Bay Police Services Board (TBPSB) will re-examine an idea to incorporate 'Regional' into the force’s title.
Board member Wayne Bahlieda floated the idea Tuesday morning near the end of the meeting, with the goal of broadening from a provincial funding perspective.
“Maybe we look at something along the lines of changing our name from the Thunder Bay Police Service to the Thunder Bay Regional Police Service.
Bahlieda compared it to the hospital sector - with the name of the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre.
"If we were to take that route, would we be able to access additional funds?” Bahlieda asked during the meeting.
“I fully understand this, that we are staffed accordingly, but we are staffed to the current population of Thunder Bay, which is 110,000. But because we're in a hub scenario, some unofficial reports say that our population is probably close to 150,000 and our services are taxed on a regular basis.”
Mayor Ken Boshcoff echoed the words of Bahlieda, adding that having the force carry the burden of serving more people than is accounted for isn’t fair.
“We have had several meetings with provincial ministers about this issue and I actually think that message is getting through. I am optimistic that we will get a demographic acknowledgement of how large a population and how large an area we serve,” Boshcoff said.
“The board has some very fair concerns that need to be addressed, including how much territory can the city police properly serve?”
Board administrator Malcolm Mercier stressed that any decision of this magnitude would have to be made by a municipal board.
“Calling this a region is confusing because it suggests that there's a region for which the service is responsible. Thunder Bay is a regional hub, but you don't change the legal authority of the service. You don't change the legal authority of the board. You don't change its area of responsibility through branding. I think you've got a risk of conveying to the world that you have a policing responsibility,” Mercer cautioned.
He also pointed to the responsibility of the board under section 31.1 of the new Police Services Act, which states that a municipal board shall be known as the name of the municipality.
Mercer argued that the service isn’t a legal entity and that a change of this nature would not entitle the force to get new taxpayers or new authority with a branding change and a different name than the board.
Board chair Karen Machado, who was acclaimed to the role for 2024 earlier in the meeting, liked the conversation, but she knows there are more questions that need to be answered before this goes any further.
“I don't know the legality, so that's obviously why no immediate decision was made. We need to do more research, more discussion and know the legalities,” Machado said.
“Costs are also something that we need to consider too because we would need to change logos, the uniform and any car emblems. So, this decision would be much bigger than just a name change.”
Machado also agreed with Chief Darcy Fleury’s point that further engagement would be needed with the Ontario Provincial Police and Nishnawbe Aski Police Service, which both police outside the city.
