KENORA-- Mayors of Kenora and Sioux Lookout and the chair for the Sioux Lookout Police Service provide insight on the problems that their communities face with policing.
Doug Lawrence Mayor of Sioux Lookout, Darlene Angeconeb, Chair of the Sioux Lookout Police Service Board, and Daniel Reynard, Mayor of Kenora, about the challenges faced keeping their communities safe, was featured on The Agenda with Steve Paikin, a TVO public affairs program.
The interview was conducted by Nam Kiwanuka, a reporter with TVO’s The Agenda, who spoke with Doug Lawrence Mayor of Sioux Lookout, Darlene Angeconeb, Chair of the Sioux Lookout Police Service Board, and Daniel Reynard, Mayor of Kenora on May 2, 2022. Her interview was prefaced with the fact that the Ontario Provincial Police operates 165 detachments across Ontario. In spite of the fact that the funding formula determines how much municipalities receive to run their police services, the consensus seemed to be that the money provided is not enough.
The OPP represents the local police force for the many Northern communities and the cost of maintaining this service keeps rising, making it more difficult for these communities to keep maintaining it.
Mayor Doug Lawrence, Mayor of Sioux Lookout, spoke about the process that took these three communities to a stage where they each agreed to form a coalition to address the cost of policing. He stated that historically, “We attacked the problem with policing individually, and as 3 close communities it was decided that we work together,” moving forward with this issue.
Lawrence identified key concerns affecting their ability to maintain appropriate police service as, the rising cost of property. He stated that, “As outliers in the province the cost of property is 3X that of other communities. The cost formula needs to be addressed to unburden outlier communities such as Pickle Lake, and Sioux Lookout.”
Kiwanuka pointed out during her interview on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o, that the three municipalities, “estimate the cost of police services has taken $30 million dollars more from their communities.” When Kiwanuka asked Darlene Angeconeb, Board Chair of the Sioux Lookout Police Service, to comment on this fact, Angeconeb highlighted a few key factors.
One factor Angeconeb mentioned was the number of calls for service made by the community. She stated that, “because our police detachment also serves some First Nations Communities not just Sioux Lookout, there are high costs to travel and the cost of anything up North is more that what the cost is in the South.”
Mayor Lawrence supported Darlene Angeconeb’s view, when he spoke about how these three communities act as what he described as “hub communities for First Nations communities between Kenora, Pickle Lake and Sioux Lookout,” and therefore, they represent what he identified as, “the primary service hub for 33 First Nations in Ontario.”
It is these key factors presented by Darlene Angeconeb, and Mayor Lawrence that drives up the cost of policing in their communities.
In terms of future outcomes that Mayor Lawrence of Sioux Lookout, Mayor Daniel Reynard of Kenora, and Darlene Angeconeb, Board Chair for the Sioux Lookout Police Services, see as important; they each agreed that the province must continue to accept that these communities need to be given some amount of discount to relieve the unfair burden for the tax base that they face.
Kenora Mayor Daniel Reynard, added that, “We are looking for an equitable system.” The group agreed that often it is hard for the Province to initiate change, but that they need to keep bringing their voice to the Solicitor General as one voice for the 3 communities. In that way they can continue to explain how the present system just does not work.
It was made clear throughout this interview, that the Province needs to recognize the impact that the present system has on their communities.
The full interview conducted by Nam Kuwanuka can be found on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o and on https://www.facebook.com/TheAgenda
