By Tyler Goode – Candidate for Thunder Bay City Council – At-Large
THUNDER BAY – CIVIC Election 2026 – Public safety is one of the biggest concerns I hear about, and I understand why. People want to feel safe walking downtown, taking their kids to a park, going to work, running a business, or simply being in their own neighbourhood.
I don’t think there is one simple answer to this. We can support our police and take violent crime, illegal firearms, and drug trafficking seriously while also recognizing that not every call involving mental health, addiction, or homelessness needs the exact same response.
If elected, one thing I would push for is better public reporting around police staffing and response. Council approved a significant increase to the police budget for 2026. If residents are investing more money into policing, I think they deserve to see what that investment is accomplishing. Are emergency response times improving? How many officers are actually available for frontline duty? Are vacancies coming down? What is happening with overtime? Are people who report non-emergency crimes getting appropriate follow-up?
I support having enough officers to respond when people need them, and I would support additional staffing where the evidence shows it is needed. I also want to see more visible neighbourhood policing. I like the idea of officers getting to know particular areas and the residents and businesses in them, instead of policing always being something people see only after something has already gone wrong.
I’ve also talked about exploring smaller community safety hubs or police points in high-call areas using existing spaces rather than immediately building expensive new facilities. They could potentially bring neighbourhood policing, victim support, Indigenous liaison, and connections to community services closer to residents. I would want the Police Services Board, police, residents, and community organizations involved in determining whether that model makes sense here and what it would cost before committing taxpayers’ money.
When we’re talking about shootings, illegal firearms, organized crime, and drug trafficking, those are police matters. We have already seen TBPS working with the OPP, Nishnawbe Aski Police Service, and other police services on major investigations, and I want that cooperation to continue. The people bringing drugs and illegal guns into Thunder Bay aren’t concerned about municipal boundaries.
Council has an important role through the overall police budget and public accountability, but councillors do not direct police investigations or decide where individual officers are deployed. I think it’s important for candidates to be honest about that.
Where I think we need to keep changing our approach is the idea that police can solve every part of public safety.
Thunder Bay already has programs such as CORE, IMPACT, social navigation, and Project Support. I would rather build on approaches that are working than pretend we need to start everything over again. Project Support, for example, has combined visible patrols in the downtown cores with referrals to mental health, addiction, housing, and other services, while still allowing enforcement when unlawful or disruptive behaviour continues.
I support expanding that kind of right-person, right-call approach where the evidence shows it works. Police should respond when there is violence, crime, or an immediate danger. When another professional can safely handle a situation involving mental health, addiction, or another social issue, let’s make better use of those professionals and free police to concentrate on the calls that actually require police.
I take the same balanced approach to homelessness and encampments. Being homeless isn’t a crime. At the same time, residents and businesses shouldn’t be expected to accept violence, theft, vandalism, or unsafe public spaces because we’re afraid to have a difficult conversation about it.
I support temporary shelter when it is needed, but the word “temporary” matters. Moving somebody from an encampment into temporary shelter and leaving them there isn’t solving homelessness. We need real pathways into supportive and permanent housing, and that means working with non-profit and Indigenous housing providers and demanding much greater involvement from the provincial and federal governments.
Prevention also has to be part of public safety. As a social worker who works with young people, this part is especially important to me. Recreation, mentorship, mental-health supports, youth spaces, and giving young people somewhere to belong may not get the same attention as a major police announcement, but preventing a young person from becoming involved in violence, gangs, or addiction in the first place is a public-safety investment too.
The city should directly support the areas that are within municipal responsibility: community safety initiatives, youth and recreation opportunities, housing and homelessness responses within our authority, safer public spaces, appropriate bylaw enforcement, and partnerships with community organizations.
Police need the resources to police. The province needs to step up on mental health and addiction treatment, supportive housing, health care, and the justice system. The federal government has responsibilities and funding tools involving firearms, organized crime, housing, and Indigenous partnerships. Thunder Bay taxpayers cannot be expected to carry problems that cross municipal boundaries or properly belong to other levels of government.
On cost, I’m not going to make up a dollar figure just because I’m running for Council. I don’t think that would be responsible. Some of what I’m proposing is about improving coordination, measuring what we’re already funding and building on programs that already exist. Anything requiring significant new municipal spending should come to the Council with a proper business case showing the cost, available provincial or federal funding, staffing requirements, expected results, and how those results will be measured. I would look for outside funding and partnerships first before simply adding another cost to the property tax bill.
And that last part is important to me.
Four years from now, don’t judge this approach by how many announcements City Hall made. Look at emergency response times. Look at violent crime and firearms offences. Look at frontline staffing and vacancies. Look at repeat calls for service and follow-up for victims. Look at whether public disorder is improving in areas residents and businesses have identified as problems. Look at whether fewer people are living in encampments and more people are successfully reaching housing, treatment, and other supports.
Then ask people the simplest question:
Do you feel safer in Thunder Bay than you did four years ago?
Right now, only 51% of residents surveyed say they feel safe in Thunder Bay. If four years from now that number hasn’t meaningfully improved, we need to be honest enough to say we haven’t done enough.
I don’t pretend one councillor can fix all of this. What I can do is ask difficult questions, vote for investments when the evidence supports them, demand results for the money we’re spending, work with the people already doing this work, and keep pushing the other levels of government to do their part.
That’s what safer neighbourhoods and stronger communities mean to me. Enforcement matters. Prevention matters. Housing and treatment matter. Accountability matters. We need all of them working together.
Tyler Goode
Candidate for Thunder Bay City Council – At-Large
NetNewsLedger has asked all of the candidates for Mayor and at-Large this question on public safety;
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 also placed strong emphasis on solving violent crime and illegal-firearms offences, neighbourhood patrols and reliable response to 911 calls.
Over the past year, Thunder Bay has experienced a number of serious incidents, including shootings, homicides, stabbings, major drug seizures and weapons investigations. At the same time, police and community organizations have repeatedly pointed out that enforcement alone cannot address the conditions driving public disorder, addiction, homelessness and mental-health crises.
At-large councillors represent the entire city and have a direct role in approving budgets, setting municipal priorities, voting on policing and social-service investments, and pressing other levels of government for support.
Question:
If elected as an at-large councillor, what specific measures would you support to make Thunder Bay measurably safer across all neighbourhoods? Please explain how you would vote and advocate on issues including violent crime and illegal firearms, drug trafficking, downtown and neighbourhood disorder, homelessness, addiction and mental-health response, police staffing and 911 response times, youth prevention programs and community-based safety initiatives.
What should the City fund directly, what should be the responsibility of Thunder Bay Police, and what support would you seek from the provincial and federal governments? Finally, what measurable results should residents use after four years to judge whether your approach has worked?
Please identify what your proposals would cost, how they would be funded, and what they would change from the city’s current approach.
