Regina police board among last to have more elected officials than civilians
Regina's mayor defends board, says it has civilian oversight
Regina is among the last major Canadian cities to have more elected officials than civilians members governing its police board.
CBC News looked at the composition of 14 different police boards across various municipalities. All had more civilian members than city councillors, with many of those civilians being provincial or council appointees.
Saskatoon recently joined that list of cities by adding more civilians to its police board, making civilians the board's majority.
Here's a list of cities and municipalities with a civilian majority on their police boards:
- Saint John
- Halifax
- Toronto
- London, Ont.
- Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.
- Peel, Ont.
- Durham, Ont.
- Ottawa
- Winnipeg
- Saskatoon
- Calgary
- Edmonton
- Hamilton
- Vancouver
- Victoria
In Regina, the board of police commissioners is chaired by Mayor Michael Fougere and is comprised of councillors Joel Murray and Barbara Young, as well as civilians Gord Selinger and Vic Pankratz, whose terms were recently extended.
"The Board of Police Commissioners is the governing body of the Regina Police Service and the vital link between the community and its police. The Board provides civilian governance, functioning much as a board of directors," the city's website reads.
'We have civilian oversight'
Fougere said the five-member board has not considered adding more civilians, but will look at the recent move in Saskatoon.
"We have civilian oversight. We have two members of the public that are on there. The Saskatoon model is certainly under The Police Act and other regulations.
"They can make those changes. We haven't had the discussion yet about that, but we do have civilian oversight," Fougere said following Wednesday's meeting of the police board, adding the makeup of the board has been decided for 2018.
Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark has said the move to add more civilians will separate the politics of city council from the police board.
Fougere said he doesn't share Clark's opinion.
"I commit to look at making the board as effective as possible. What that looks like at the end, I'm not going to prejudge anything."
Florence Stratton, an activist with the group Colonialism No More, says having a civilian-majority board could mean more scrutiny of police spending around budget time.
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