An announcement by Premier Doug Ford earlier this week which will remove tuition requirements for those seeking to become police officers is being seen as an opportunity for the Thunder Bay Police Service.

That is according to Chief Designate Darcy Fleury, who takes command next month, he says from a recruiting perspective, Thunder Bay is in the same boat with others.

“My experience has been that every police agency is struggling with recruitment, so its not nothing new for smaller sized forces, medium sized forces like Thunder Bay its a concern as well as far as recruitment, I think there is a couple of factors to go with that it will help us I believe.”

The tuition drop he says opens up some opportunities city police could benefit from.

“Some people now, who perhaps couldn’t before afford to go through the process, now that they may have interest they may want to apply and join in, and the second piece to that is it is one of those pieces that will help us with systemic barriers.”