Stivrins to return as Police Board Chair

Rich Stivrins will continue as the North Bay Police Board chair for the next three years.  

The announcement came at Tuesday's police board meeting at North Bay Police Headquarters. 

Stivrins, who is the captain of the Chief Commanda II cruise ship, was appointed in January 2022 as a board member and in December 2023 was voted as the new Police Board Chair replacing Dennis O'Connor who stepped down in the middle of his term. 

"I was always brought up to leave something in a better condition than when you found it," said Stivrins about continuing in the role as Board Chair.  

"I think on my time on the board so far it has been two different boards now that I have had the pleasure of working with and I think we are seeing progress in the development of the police service. I think we are doing a better job than we have in the past and that's an incremental thing where you just get a little bit better each and every year, and I just hope to continue doing my part to help make this community a safer place to live, work and raise a family." 

See related: Stivrins looks to guide Police Board through murky waters

See related: North Bay Police looking for significant budget increase in 2025

Stivrins came in at a very unique time as he helped guide the service in its search for a new police chief as Scott Tod retired in February 2024 and was replaced by new chief Daryl Longworth. 

Now Stivrins and the board are trying to navigate around a significant proposed budget increase of over 12 per cent. 

"I live in the community, I am a father, a husband and a small business owner so we are all feeling the cost of life increases which everybody just feels at the grocery store, and we are cognizant this will increase the tax bill on taxpayers and that is one we will have to do to but this is an essential service and we are seeing across the province whether it is municipal services, whether it is OPP services, there are big increases coming and that is because the cost of policing is high and getting higher," explained Stivrins. 

"I think my comments in the meeting were valid, we want to start putting a lid on these things, we are going to start investing in the social services side of things for a cheaper and more effective way of dealing with some of these issues and letting the police be the police and the social workers be social workers I think is the only way to put a lid on it but in the interim, we don't have a choice to fund our police service in this community."