Who is on the Ottawa Police Services Board and what are its responsibilities?

Article content material

Ottawa’s new police chief can be Eric Stubbs, an assistant commissioner with the RCMP in British Columbia. Stubbs used to dwell in Ottawa and has expertise because the felony operations officer for the B.C. RCMP, the place 125 detachments reported to him.

Article content material

Two main mayoral candidates, Catherine McKenney and Mark Sutcliffe, have stated they’ll work with Stubbs however they disagree on whether or not the Ottawa Police Companies Board — which is chargeable for hiring the chief — ought to have waited till after the municipal election to proceed with the hiring course of. (McKenney and fellow candidate Bob Chiarelli had been in opposition to it, whereas Sutcliffe indicated he was effective with the method.)

Article content material

Board chair Eli El-Chantiry has insisted that this iteration of the board, which has been in place because the spring, will not be a “lame duck” and had dedicated to hiring a chief earlier than the election. In a media launch, the board stated it was essential to “remind the candidates, and make clear for the general public, that the police companies board is a definite and separate physique from metropolis council.”

Article content material

The Ottawa Police Companies Board is chargeable for hiring the chief, however what are its different obligations, and who sits on it? How will it’s completely different after Monday’s election?

Who sits on the police companies board?

Below provincial legislation, the board should include an equal variety of members appointed from the native municipal council and the province, in addition to one group member chosen by council. In Ottawa, the board consists of seven members: three provincial appointees, three council members and one council appointee.

The present provincial appointees are Salim Fakirani, a former lawyer with the Canadian Human Rights Fee; Peter Henschel, a retired RCMP Deputy Commissioner; and Michael Doucet, former chief expertise officer (CTO) after which chief info officer (CIO) for the RCMP.

Article content material

The provincial members had been just lately appointed to a three-year time period on the board and can stay in place after the election, whatever the outcomes.

Suzanne Valiquet is the citizen appointed by council who sits on the board.

The town councillors presently serving on the board are Eli El-Chantiry, who chairs the board and occupies the seat reserved for the mayor if the mayor needs to sit down on the board, plus Cathy Curry and Jeff Leiper.

Curry and Leiper are working for re-election; El-Chantiry will not be.

After Monday’s election, when the brand new council kinds on Nov. 15, the board can have, a minimum of, a brand new chair. All three of the council members who sit on the board is likely to be completely different.

In its first weeks and months, the board’s obligations will embrace recruiting a deputy chief, reviewing and approving the 2023 police finances and creating a brand new strategic plan for the police service.

Article content material

What does a police companies board do?

In Ontario, these boards oversee native policing, whether or not the group is house to its personal police pressure, has a joint police pressure with different municipalities or contracts out native policing to the Ontario Provincial Police. In accordance with the province, boards just like the one in Ottawa that oversee municipal police companies are chargeable for setting goals and priorities for the native pressure, making ready a marketing strategy each three years, appointing members of the pressure, recruiting the chief and deputy chief of the police (and monitoring their performances) and collaborating in collective bargaining because the employer.

What’s its relationship with the Ottawa Police Service?

Below the Police Companies Act, the board should present “enough and efficient policing companies” within the metropolis of Ottawa. The board offers strategic path to the pressure, approves the annual police finances, hires the chief, and acts as an oversight physique.

With information from Postmedia employees