The chairman of the West Nipissing Police Board, Barry Bertrand, feels the town council and OPP are working behind the back of the local board.
Council voted last year to go to OPP for community policing and disband the local service.
See: OPP in, local cops out as West Nipissing votes to make a change
But Bertrand says his board is concerned about the costing process and says those concerns are being ignored, while still being asking to sign off on the plans.
" Council and OPP were to include the board, and myself as chair, in this process," Bertrand told BayToday. "They never did so, so we've been totally excluded from the process but we're being asked to sign off on it as if we did. so the board has some serious concerns about doing that."
The board passed a resolution last night to write to Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services Marie-France LaLonde, asking for her help in making sure the process is properly followed.
Another issue is council and the OPP moving forward, without participation from the Board, to go forward using an existing small brick building located in Goulard Park as a temporary site for the police station while the transition is taking place.
"The approximate size is about 2,500 sq. ft. yet they are going to build a 17,000 sq. ft. new building for the OPP, so we have serious concerns about this building being used as a police station because there won't be any room to put necessary offices, cells, decontamination showers...everything that would be required in an appropriate office."
Bertrand says the Board will write to the Ministry of Labour about that issue.
He's also getting the feeling from the community and some of the town councillors of "What's the rush."
"Council could very easily have passed the motion that they want to transfer over and keep the existing police service in our location until such a time as the new building is built. But they seem to be in a hurry for some reason to get that done before the next election, so I don't know the reason behind it."
A crowd of about 25 people showed up at last night's board meeting to express their concerns.
"A lot of the people were involved with the petition or trying to get information from council which wasn't very forthcoming."
Bertrand says he doesn't think the community really wants to switch to the OPP.
"We got that sense from the get-go. Our board is responsible to reflect basically the wishes of the community. At no time did we get the feeling the community wanted to replace us with the OPP and we're still getting that feedback and even with the petition, on a two week period over Christmas you have 1,500 people signing it asking to have a referendum or slow it down, yet Council decided to totally ignore it. I sense a frustration within the community that they're not being listened to and it hasn't gone away."
A phone call to Mayor Joanne Savage for comment was not returned.
