Thunder Bay council puts the brakes on $56M for police campus, only approves $2.4M for project at budget talks

Thunder Bay city councillors will vote on Monday to ratify its 2022 budget, after cutting back this year's commitment to a proposed new police campus.

Council wrapped up its review of the budget Tuesday night by voting 8-4 to remove the $56 million project and to instead commit $2.4 million for preliminary work on the campus, including purchasing property.

In doing so, it honoured a request from the Thunder Bay Police Services Board to leave the majority of the funding to be considered for the 2023 budget instead of the 2022 one. 

"This is just not the right time for a capital project of this magnitude to move forward," explained mayor and police board member Bill Mauro at the Jan. 26 council budget review meeting where the board's resolution was first discussed. 

The police service and its board are facing a number of human rights complaints from former and current officers and member of the police service board. The deputy chief is also currently suspended pending an internal investigation and Ontario's solicitor general has also requested an external investigation into the service. 

The police board originally presented council with a resolution reducing the $56 million dollar budget commitment to $2.4 million. 

But council held off voting on it and instead asked the board to bring a revised resolution back on Feb. 1 that would give councillors the option to reject both the full $56 million and the $2.4 million. 

'My sense is the community is not behind this project'

Coun. Mark Bentz voted against both options at the Feb. 1 meeting, saying that he did not want to bind a new council, to be elected on Oct. 24, to the project by committing money to it. 

"My sense is the community is not behind this project," he told council. "If you look at the commentary, the summaries that we've received on our budget, the police ask is mentioned numerous times and not in a positive light."

Bentz also raised environmental concerns related to abandoning a 65,000 square-foot building to build a new one and questioned whether it was truly necessary to completely replace the current police headquarters.

"I'm not convinced we need an integrated firing range," he said. "I"m not convinced we need an integrated training centre for northwestern Ontario. Is that a want or a need?"

'Every year you wait, it's a couple more million dollars'

Coun. Rebecca Johnson joined Bentz in citing community opposition as a reason to reject any funding for the new police facility.

"I go through all of the surveys," she said.  "They want less investment in police services.  That is very clear. … and so I think the community needs to know that we have heard them." 

But other councillors were prepared to commit the entire $56 million for the facility in the 2022 budget year despite the police services board's request for a reduction. 

"There's always issues happening with the police at some point or another," said Coun. Aldo Ruberto. "That shouldn't stop us from going forward and trying to make things better … As we learned with other facilities, every year you wait, it's a couple more million dollars – the conservatory, the multiplex. It just kept going up and up and up." 

Coun. Cody Fraser shared Ruberto's enthusiasm for committing to the $56 million immediately saying that his appreciation for police had been bolstered by watching protestors dance on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier during protests in Ottawa and by touring the current Thunder Bay police facility. 

Public divided over spending plan 

"If you want a world class police force, we need to have a facility," Fraser said. 

"There's an individual at the police headquarters who works on a desk with a piece of plywood over a former sink, and their computer's on it." 

One of the regular participants on a Facebook page devoted to the new campus said he was disappointed in council's decision to move forward with the project at all.

Vern Seymour believes in investing in police officers and police services staff, he said over Messenger, but he was not convinced after watching the budget review meeting that the case had been made for the new police campus.

"What we have is a block of Swiss cheese with ridiculous arguments used to defend it," he said.

But another participant on the police campus Facebook page said she was disappointed that council didn't commit the entire $56 million for the project.

More police resources to help fight drug dealers

Carolyn Karle, who lost her daughter to a drug overdose in the fall, said she believes the police need the best possible resources to address crime and drugs in the city.

"If they had more resources and more time to investigate they could possibly have a better case to take to the court to keep these dangerous offenders … tucked away," she said. "I'm sure of it."

Council will vote to ratify the budget on Feb. 7.

The city cancelled a public post-budget deputation meeting scheduled for Thursday night due to a lack of requests from would-be presenters .

It is still accepting written submissions ahead of the ratification vote.