BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association
Your Data Your Rights
As the Southern Georgian Bay OPP detachment board continues to hit the ground running, members hope to find a permanent meeting locale.
Board administrator Phil DeBruyne presided over this week’s meeting in Tiny Township with nearly-official community representative Judy Contin who was awaiting finalization on CSPA requirements before her full participation next meeting.
A verbal update by interim detachment commander Insp. Mike Thurlow included attention to an upcoming annual report for detachment policing, a pilot project to stagger policing work hours for greater efficiency on focused areas, and anticipating the summer boating season with marine patrols.
Thurlow also briefly addressed “the elephant in the room” of a sudden death in Midland over the weekend.
“Our criminal investigations branch is currently working on that; I can’t speak to anything further on that,” stated Thurlow.
“There has been some media that has gone out on that, and as more information comes forward then our criminal investigations branch are responsible for the investigation and for the media, and that will come forward.”
DeBruyne also provided an administration report which included a request to explore an assistant administrator, with reasoning to alleviate the burden on Midland staff for back-end support; however, he told the board that keeping within budgetary scope was a priority.
A question by vice chair Midland Mayor Bill Gordon about the community well-being and safety plan asked what metrics could be established on intimate partner violence for expectations or “measurables.”
DeBruyne replied that under the local action plan, it would be the detachment commander’s responsibility with a provision that: “we have 60 days as a board to respond to it, to ensure that they have met their legislative responsibilities under the (Community Safety Policing Act).”
One topic of discussion included in-person, hybrid, and virtual attendance for meetings, which tangented onto travel expenses; relevant due to the next detachment board meeting being scheduled for May 26 at the Georgian Bay Township municipal building.
Gordon offered that hybrid meetings were best, “if we’re going to continue the format of being the Traveling Wilburys.”
Georgian Bay Township Mayor Peter Koetsier pitched having Midland as a central meeting spot with hybrid attendance, adding: “I can appreciate that we can’t be the Traveling Wilburys forever.”
A brief communications summary was also presented by Gordon with a request for board members to quickly transition from personal emails onto secure Microsoft 365 accounts, for reasons of security as well as public transparency should freedom of information requests be made.
“We’re not doing any nuclear secrets or anything, but the conversations that we have amongst ourselves – it’s business,” Gordon told MidlandToday.
“You shouldn’t really mix your business with your personal email account. I don’t imagine we’ll get a lot of FOI requests, but you never know.”
Following the meeting, Thurlow told MidlandToday that he was excited about being introduced to the five detachment board communities.
“I’m very appreciative to the board and how much they have been supportive of me, helping guiding me along,” said Thurlow.
“It’s a learning curve for me as I take on this new role as the detachment commander, but I’m looking forward to working with each and every one of the members of the board as well as the individual mayors, and meeting with them to talk to them about community needs.
Thurlow added: “The big thing for us is always looking at the things that are in our action plan, and making sure we’re addressing those for the community.”
—
The Local Journalism Initiative (LJI) is a federally funded program to add coverage in under-covered areas or on under-covered issues. This content is created and submitted by participating publishers and is not edited. Access can also be gained by registering and logging in at: https://lji-ijl.ca
You can support trusted and verified news content like this.
FIPA’s news monitor subscribers, donors and funders help make these available to everyone rather than behind a paywall. We appreciate every contribution because it makes a difference.
If you found this article interesting and useful, please consider contributing here.
