Thunder Bay – Civic Politics – Thunder Bay is spending tens of millions of dollars to make our downtown cores more attractive.
But those investments will be a colossal waste of money if people don’t feel safe visiting, living or working in our downtowns.
That’s why I am calling for a different kind of boots-on-the-ground policing in Thunder Bay — particularly in our two downtown cores.
For years, police chiefs have told us that a large part of modern policing involves dealing with social problems: homelessness, mental health, addictions and people in crisis. I believe them.
Our current police chief understands this as well. That’s why we now have social workers working alongside police officers, helping people living on the streets find housing and connect with mental health and addiction services.
I want to take that approach further.
Get ahead of the crisis
I want our police officers to know the people who are living on our streets and to work with the agencies responsible for getting them into housing and treatment.
Too much policing can become reactive: someone reaches a crisis, a 911 call comes in, and officers are dispatched.
I want our police to be more visible and more proactive — walking our downtowns, talking to people, building relationships and identifying problems before they become emergencies.
The objective isn’t to turn police officers into social workers.
The objective is to prevent problems from becoming police emergencies in the first place.
If we can reduce the number of situations that escalate into 911 calls, we can improve police response times for the emergencies where an immediate police response is truly required.
That may also mean recruiting officers with different skills, interests and experience. We should be looking for people who understand community policing and are prepared to build relationships as well as respond to crime.
We also need a serious housing strategy
Homelessness is not just a housing issue. It is affecting the social fabric of our entire community.
Visible homelessness and encampments create despair — for people experiencing homelessness and for everyone who lives, works and operates a business downtown.
The most recent Point-in-Time Count tells us that Indigenous people represent a very large majority of Thunder Bay’s homeless population.
We need to confront that reality directly.
I am calling for a Thunder Bay Housing Summit bringing together the City, Indigenous leadership, First Nations housing authorities, the federal and provincial governments, and the agencies working with people experiencing homelessness.
We need a detailed master plan for people who have left remote northern First Nations communities and come to Thunder Bay.
And we need to rethink how housing assistance follows people.
Where appropriate, government funding should follow the individual rather than simply being tied to institutions or jurisdictions. If someone leaves their home community and comes to Thunder Bay, the resources required to house and support that person should be able to follow them.
That kind of investment up front could save taxpayers money later — including money currently being spent responding to homelessness through policing, emergency services and crisis intervention.
Put more resources on the front line — not in the back office
I am not proposing an increase in the police budget simply to put more officers downtown.
My broader platform calls for eliminating unnecessary duplication between the City, the Police Service, Synergy North, Tbaytel and the District Social Services Administration Board.
We don’t necessarily need separate back-office systems and departments for payroll, billing, human resources, IT and other administrative functions in every organization.
Let’s look for efficiencies.
Then let’s put the savings where citizens can see them: on the front line.
That could mean more officers on the street without simply increasing the overall tax burden.
It could also reduce the pressure to build an enormous new police headquarters.
Let the right police service do the right job
There is another area where I believe we need to ask some difficult questions.
Local police officers are increasingly dealing with cybercrime, fraud and online scams.
Our local police need to be there for victims. They need to take reports, provide assistance and make sure victims aren’t left on their own.
But we should also ask whether every investigation needs to be conducted by our municipal police service.
Where another level of policing — particularly the Ontario Provincial Police — has the expertise and jurisdiction to investigate these crimes, we should look at transferring appropriate investigations.
The objective is simple: make the best use of every police officer we have.
One region. Better cooperation between police services.
Finally, Thunder Bay has an opportunity to do something that should have been happening for years.
The Thunder Bay Police Service, Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service and Ontario Provincial Police should be working more closely together.
That means sharing intelligence.
It means coordinating training.
It means looking for opportunities to share facilities and equipment rather than building three separate systems wherever that isn’t necessary.
And it means creating a regular leadership committee involving the three services to identify criminal activity moving between our communities — particularly gangs, guns and organized crime.
We should be sharing information and coordinating our response rather than allowing criminals to take advantage of jurisdictional boundaries.
The debate over a proposed $100-million police campus showed that Thunder Bay has to make hard choices about how it spends taxpayers’ money.
I believe our priority should be clear:
More policing where people need it. Less bureaucracy behind it. More prevention before crisis. And much stronger cooperation between the police services serving Northwestern Ontario.
That’s what Public Safety First should mean.
NetNewsLedger asked all of the candidates running for Mayor this question:
Public safety remains one of the most serious concerns facing Thunder Bay residents. A 2026 Thunder Bay Police Service citizen survey found only 51 per cent of respondents said they felt safe in the city. Disorder and substance use were each identified as concerns by 87 per cent of respondents, while homelessness and encampments were cited by 77 per cent. Residents ranked solving violent crime and illegal-firearms offences, neighbourhood patrols and reliable response to 911 calls among their highest policing priorities.
Over the past year, Thunder Bay has experienced a series of serious incidents, including a February shooting investigation in the Vale Crescent area that resulted in an attempted-murder charge against a youth; a June investigation in which police seized more than 1.5 kilograms of suspected fentanyl and a handgun; a July homicide investigation on Cumming Street that resulted in second-degree murder charges; an August Dawson Road assault in which the victim later died and two people were charged with manslaughter; and several reported stabbings and weapons-related incidents.
At the same time, police themselves acknowledge that enforcement alone cannot resolve the conditions affecting public safety. Residents have identified addiction treatment, mental-health services, affordable housing and homelessness supports as essential parts of the solution. Thunder Bay Police have also expanded downtown patrols through Project Support in response to concerns about open drug use, aggressive behaviour, vandalism, trespassing and public disorder.
Question:
If you are elected mayor, what specific actions will you take during your four-year term to make Thunder Bay measurably safer for residents, businesses, visitors and vulnerable people?
Please explain how your plan would address violent crime and illegal firearms, drug trafficking and organized crime, downtown and neighbourhood disorder, homelessness, addictions and mental-health crises, police staffing and response times, and prevention programs for youth.
What responsibilities should belong to the City and Thunder Bay Police, what assistance will you demand from the provincial and federal governments, and what measurable results should residents use after four years to determine whether your public-safety strategy has actually worked?
As a candidate, please be encouraged to identify what you proposals would cost, how they would be funded and what they would change from the city’s current approach.
