THUNDER BAY — More police forces across Ontario are vying to recruit fewer qualified candidates to fill their ranks, and the local service is no exception, say top officials.
The Thunder Bay Police Service Board has identified several priorities it wants raised with the province at this summer’s Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference, with one of them being “resourcing and recruitment challenges.” The board has asked the city’s intergovernmental affairs committee to bring a number of priorities forward on its behalf.
According to the minutes of the police service board’s May meeting, a summary of the recruitment concern said that “Thunder Bay is facing difficulty competing with other services (e.g., NAPS) in attracting and retaining officers.” NAPS, the Nishnawbe Aski Police Service, became an official legislated police force last December and is projecting to eventually double the number of sworn officers it has.
“We do now have multiple services within the region who are actively offering employment opportunities,” Jeremy Pearson, a deputy chief with Thunder Bay police said. “We do need to put an emphasis on obtaining both our sworn and our skilled civilian staff.”
“It's something that we need to look at and … we're catching up with the reality of what I believe is, probably (happening) across the province in terms of more densely populated municipalities.”
Pearson said with Thunder Bay being relatively geographically isolated, the city police force has been insulated against “movement within the workforce,” to a large degree.
“We haven't had to deal with that reality,” Pearson said, of there being multiple other options for employment in the same region. “Now that reality is something that we're looking to address and we're looking to retain our staff.”
Retention and recruiting have been issues for some time, with Thunder Bay police saying back in 2019 that the number of applications had already been declining for several years. Pearson said it’s in line with police services seeing declining enrolment across the province.
He said the force is now highlighting Thunder Bay as a destination “not a stepping stone” for applicants, and as a thriving and growing city. He said, in addition to focusing on recruitment throughout the region, they’ve also targeted Manitoba in their efforts.
Pearson said he doesn’t know exactly why recruitment is down, but he had some ideas, including that he understands that people generally change careers more often these days.
“I couldn't speak with certainty as to why recruiting in policing is down,” he said. “Certainly, you look at challenges of public perception, you look at the fluidity of the of the workforce — I mean there are a number of factors that play in, but I mean that's simply a challenge.”
“It's just a new reality and we all have to address it and look at what it is that makes this career rewarding, what it is that makes this career valuable.”
Currently, Pearson said the force has approximately 400 staff total with about 250 of those being sworn officers.
The police service is in the process of drafting its next round of budget proposals, he added, including “potential expansions to meet the needs of the community as we’ve identified them.”
But that hiring would now be taking place in a “competitive job market,” Pearson said.
“There's now a competitive market for these skilled positions — both sworn and civilian — and so it's top-of-mind certainly for our service,” he said.
“We need to be prepared to properly compensate and properly staff all of our departments in order to provide service in order to retain our employees and our skilled knowledge base.”
