Ontario has signed a “historic” agreement with the country’s largest First Nations policing service that will expand the incidents the force can respond to, double its complement of officers and subject it to the same standards as other provincial police departments.
On Tuesday afternoon, Solicitor General Michael Kerzner stood with a number of First Nations leaders to announce just over $500 million in funding and the signing of an agreement that will ultimately see the Nishnawbe Aski Police Service (NAPS) rise to 500 officers able to tackle complex crimes like homicide.
“This is a historic day for policing in the province of Ontario,” said Kerzner. “We’re proud to mark this momentous occasion alongside First Nations partners to help modernize and strengthen the Nishnawbe Aski Police Service to keep communities safe and protected.”
The agreement will allow NAPS to respond to crimes which it had previously relied upon Ontario Provincial Police officers to handle.
“There were some things that were prohibited for us in providing services,” NAPS board chair Frank McKay said.
“We couldn’t do our own investigation if there was a homicide, we couldn’t have a K9 unit, we had to depend on the OPP to provide those specialized services that we required at that time.”
Local police will also be able to form other specialized units to tackle specific issues like drugs.
Through the agreement, Ontario essentially recognizes NAPS as the official service responsible for the area and commits to giving it the funding necessary to provide effective policing.
It replaces a previous patchwork tri-lateral agreement involving the federal and provincial governments that saw limited resources offered to NAPS to provide some services, funded by Queen’s Park and Ottawa, and the OPP involved on other issues.
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NAPS currently serves 34 First Nations communities.
Ontario NDP MPP Sol Mamakwa, the only First Nations member of the legislature, welcomed the news.
“Congratulations — there is a lot of work to be done,” he said. “It is for the safety and the goodness of people who live in Nishnawbe Aski nation.”
The new deal will also subject the force to the same standards other police services in Ontario are held to.
Those standards will include the Ontario Building Code, something local leaders have welcomed. The state and standard of buildings has been a concern for decades, particularly following the 2006 deaths of two men in a fire at a NAPS detachment in Kashechewan First Nation.
“The regulations that will support this legislation will include the creation of standards — and that’s something that’s been missing over the last 30 years,” Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler said.
“Our police services will need to adhere to standards, like any other police service not just in the province but across the country.”
Giving NAPS more authority will also see it essentially double the number of officers it employs to more than 500. Over the next six years, the force plans to recruit new officers to fill those spaces.
“The chief can go on a recruitment program with the surety that there will be spots at the Ontario Police College — this was fundamental,” Kerzner said.
NAPS Chief Terry Armstrong said the police service was already recruiting and hoped to hire 80 new officers per year. Roughly 20 officers leave every year “because of the remoteness and the challenges of the policing,” he said, meaning it will take some time to complete the expansion.
“It’s tough policing, it’s not for everybody,” Armstrong said.
Exactly what the newly-regulated police service will cost in the long run remains somewhat unclear.
To help with the immediate transition into the new framework, the province is putting up $514 million to “support NAPS as it opt-in” over the next three years.
Doubling the number of officers working for NAPS, applying new standards to its infrastructure and training specialized officers in areas like homicide, however, is “for sure” going to come with higher, permanent costs, Fiddler said.
Asked if Ontario would cover the costs, Kerzner referenced the funds that have already been earmarked.
“We made an announcement of our commitment today,” he said. “There is enormous resources that the province will contribute to make sure that adequate and effective policing is there.”
Kerzner called on the federal government to recognize NAPS as an essential service — as Ontario has done — and fund it as one.
Fiddler indicated that calculating the long-term costs and who will pay is still being worked on — and that both the federal and provincial governments would be expected to step up.
“Part of the exercise was to actually figure out what is the true cost of delivering an effective, safe policing service in (the) territory because we all recognize that the old funding model didn’t even come close to meeting the needs of the resources our police service needed to meet its mandate,” he said.
“The budget needs to increase, it’s not just Ontario, Canada will need to be at the table to ensure that all these needs are met.”
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