There are a number of topics up for discussion at Thunder Bay’s Police Services Board meeting this morning including the recommendations which came out of the Inquest into the deaths of Donald Mamakwa and Roland McKay, who died while in custody at police headquarters in 2014 and 2017 respectively.

Specifically that the Thunder Bay Police be involved in joint training with Superior North E-M-S and that the service review the role of jailers, their training, and the level of supervision given to those in custody.

Additionally the board has been given several recommendations including creating a position of Deputy Chief, Indigenous Relations and an expert consultant be retained to provide an independent assessment of the level of staffing required for the police service.

Also on the agenda will be the extension of Administrator Malcom Mercer’s contract until March 24th, 2024, an overview regarding the recent Norval Morrisseau Art Fraud investigation and overages in the budgets, as it appears both the Thunder Bay Police Service and its Board went considerably over budget in 2022.

The TBPS spent $53 million on operating costs last year, 7% more than its budget of $49.5 million.

In a report from Acting Chief of Police Dan Taddeo a majority of the overages, some $3.3 million dollars, come from personnel services including $1.8 million in overtime costs, and a combined million dollars in fringe benefits and wages due to a required realignment of staffing within senior administration and temporary resources to assist in the backlog of recording and transcription of police reports.

Meanwhile at the Police Services Board a Memorandum from Secretary John Hannam indicates an unfavourable variance of $702,000, largely due to legal costs associated with the Board’s Expert Panel, the Mamakwa-Mckay Inquest and Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario files.