‘We need to do it, and soon’: Sarnia Police Services Board launches renewed effort to move forward with new headquarters

The Sarnia Police Service Board sent a letter to Mike Bradley arguing he cannot use strong mayor powers to block police station funding. Gerry Dewan explains.

The battle over a new police headquarters in Sarnia has taken a legal turn.

The Sarnia Police Services Board has hired a lawyer to issue a legal response to Mayor Mike Bradley’s use of strong mayor powers to block municipal funding for the project.

Bradley told CTV News he stands by his decision to override a council decision, which would have given the police service $5 million to start the planning process for the new headquarters, “I do not know how they can actually force a city to put up $5 million when we’ve already set our budget following their rules.”

A letter from Toronto law firm Hudson Sinclair offered a response on behalf of the Sarnia Police Services Board.

The letter states that, “Under section 50 of the Community Safety and Policing Act (the CSPA), a police service board must submit its operating and capital estimates to the municipality, which is then responsible for establishing the police service board’s overall budget.”

Sarnia Coun. and Police Services Board Vice-Chair Anne Marie Gillis said the headquarters isn’t a ‘nice to have,’ it’s a ‘need to have,’ “We need to do it, and we need to do it soon.”

Gillis said a letter from the Solicitor General’s office distributed in mid-January to councils and police services boards across the province was a direct response to the strong mayor power-play in Sarnia.

It stressed that strong mayor powers do not include the power to limit police service board increases, with a bolded line stating, “The Head of Council’s strong mayor budget powers do not include the power to limit police service board budget increases or veto estimates submitted by police service boards.”

According to Gillis, “The Solicitor General has made that quite clear. So here we are trying to sort it all out.”

Bradley continues to point to an independent engineering report commissioned by the Sarnia Police Service which indicates that for about $4.5 million, the current headquarters can remain viable.

Gillis said that money would only make the headquarters compliant under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act and that it doesn’t address overcrowding and the inadequate facilities that aren’t conducive to modern policing, “We don’t have a safe place to transport or move prisoners into the actual facility itself, which is required. So, there are specific requirements from the ministry that we must comply with, and we cannot comply with the actual physical building related.”

Bradley argues the $5 million commitment will lead the city down the path of spending approximately $120 million for the new headquarters, “The Ford government always talks about affordability and taking care of the ordinary person. If they intervene in this, they’re sending a message that mayors and council across this province should just give up on trying to control their budgets.”

Bradley said Sarnia is one of the few cities in Canada that has managed to reach a balanced budget, but the new headquarters will mean significant tax increases for years to come.