Police services board defers vote on proposed new police station until January

The Thunder Bay Police Services Board deferred its vote on a proposed new police headquarters in the city until next month.

A motion on the matter was presented on Tuesday's meeting. It called on the board to throw its support behind a new, $50-million police headquarters, which would replace the current building on Balmoral Street.

Police have said the current building is no longer suitable for the city's police department to operate out of, and heavy renovations would be required to make it work.

Tuesday's motion also called on the board to approve the inclusion of $5.6 million for consideration in the 2022 city budget, which would be used for land acquisition and the preparation of tender documents.

Further, the motion called for including about $50 million for consideration in the city's 2024budget, which would go toward construction costs.

However, a vote on the resolution didn't take place Tuesday, as a seconder couldn't be found.

"I would say six months from now, city administration will begin confirming their 2022 capital budgets," Thunder Bay Mayor Bill Mauro, who also sits on the police board, said on Tuesday's meeting. "We are committing them to consider this in terms of the formulation of that budget, without having any funding source or discussion around how we might fund in 2024 the bigger piece."

"I just can't see myself, unfortunately supporting this," he said. "I won't be seconding it today."

Mauro said he wants to see a list of the most-pressing issues at the Balmoral Street police headquarters, so the necessary renovations can be done in the short term.

Michael Power, the newest police board member, also declined to second the motion, saying he needed more time to research the matter.

In the end, the vote was put off until the police board's Jan. 19 meeting.