Police Board chair backs up Callander policing decision

The chair of the North Bay Police Board says it was not a quick decision that prompted the North Bay Police Service to decide not to renew a policing contract with the municipality of Callander. 

In a press release issued on Wednesday, the North Bay Police Service Board stated it will no longer be making another contract presentation to Callander City Council, which was scheduled to take place in early October. 

"It has been a very long process. we were involved with Callander since December of 2020," noted Dennis O'Connor, the North Bay Police Board Chair.  

"We went back and forth with our particular offers and Callander came back and forth and at the end, we came to the conclusion we are going to start concentrating more and more - this is the board saying it - we are going to concentrate more on our North Bay made plan." 

The North Bay Police Service has provided Callander’s policing services for the past 16 years, and the most recent 10-year contract expired last April.

Callander’s Mayor Robb Noon said he was “shocked” by the decision and stated that he would have appreciated more information as to “how the decision was made, so we could have some insight into that.”

"We had a Callander-made plan for both municipalities but we decided to concentrate more on North Bay at the time," said O'Connor. 

See related: Callander Mayor 'Shocked" by North Bay Police leaving Callander 

See related: North Bay Police ending service in Callander at the end of the year 

While O'Connor would not come out and state it clearly, it does appear that Callander exploring OPP policing may have played a role in triggering this decision. 

"It was a long period of time so it was not like instantly we cut it off, we were going back and forth. As you know they are looking at the OPP and have said that in the media, for cost and everything else so that is their choice," said O'Connor. 

"They can do what they want, they are a separate municipality so we decided that once they were looking in particular at one and looking at us, we said let's concentrate strictly with the municipality of North Bay." 

The North Bay Police will continue servicing Callander until the end of 2021 and if the municipality does not have an agreement with another service, O'Connor says they will not leave Callander without any policing after 2021.  

O'Connor says it will take some time to evaluate what they will do now that they will not have to offer those police resources south of the city.  

"The staff and the Chief will have to look at everything," noted O'Connor.

"If you have to reassign those particular officers to different duties within North Bay and they will bring it back to the board and we will decide from there if that is going to be part of our budget or not.."