Chiefs laud Police Act changes
After years of advocating for change, Niagara Regional Police Chief Jeff McGuire hopes he might soon be able to stop paying wages to suspended officers under his command.
It’s one of the changes being considered by the provincial government as part of a long-awaited update of the province’s 27-yearold Police Services Act.
The Ontario government has promised changes to the legislation later this spring. One of those proposed changes is that officers facing criminal charges no longer receive wages while suspended from duty. Under current law, pay stops at the point of a conviction.
“The Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, for many years, we’ve advocated for changes to this process,” McGuire said Tuesday while participating in the OACP’s annual conference, taking place this week in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
He said the OACP has tabled white papers calling for the change “as far back as 2007, and another one more recently.”
“We’re certainly in favour,” he said.
McGuire was joined by association president and Ottawa police Chief Charles Bordeleau and 18 of their colleagues from police services across the province for the two-day conference at Queen’s Landing where they are discussing numerous issues that impact policing.
Bordeleau said OACP members are “pleased to see that the province is hopefully moving forward with chiefs having the authority to withhold wages from suspended officers.”
“We certainly hear on a regular basis from the taxpayers, as far as money being spent with officers being suspended for two, three or four years while the court process is going on,” he said.
“We certainly welcome the ability to suspend officers in certain situations, where it’s warranted, without pay.”
The conference also dealt with a report by Ontario Court of Appeal Justice Michael Tulloch published last week. The Independent Police Oversight Review included 129 recommendations intended to improve police oversight across the province and address issues such as transparency and dissemination of information from the Special Investigations Unit (SIU).
Although Bordeleau said police chiefs do not have access to information included in ongoing SIU investigations, it’s something Tulloch’s report recommends changing.
“We’re certainly happy to see that there will be police communication between SIU and police, but also ensuring that the families and those that are directly impacted by events, that they’re brought forward with information that will help them move forward.”
McGuire said police chiefs were consulted in the development of Tulloch’s report.
“We were honoured that we were brought in as stakeholders by Justice Tulloch. He listened to us very clearly and invited us back to the table on a couple of occasions,” McGuire said.