MINDEMOYA—The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) is looking at a change in detachment boundaries in the Manitoulin, Sudbury and Espanola areas. However, according to a Manitoulin OPP official, there would be no negative affects for the Island with this initiative.
Kevin Webb, staff sergeant-detachment commander of the Manitoulin OPP, told members of the Manitoulin Municipal Association (MMA) at a meeting last week, “there has been some consideration to changing the boundaries of the OPP detachment administration boundary areas. They are looking at Manitoulin as a whole, along with Espanola and Sudbury. Right now there are three detachment clusters. They have proposed this be reduced by one.”
“What it means for the Island is that I would continue to oversee the operations here, and would oversee the operations of the Espanola OPP detachment,” said Staff Sgt. Webb. However, before any decisions are made, “they (OPP command staff) want to hold an information session with municipal representatives mayors-reeves and councillors.”
The Manitoulin detachment cluster would remain in place. “The only thing the Manitoulin detachment would be sharing is me,” said Staff Sgt. Webb. “I would share responsibility with Espanola OPP but it would not affect manpower or equipment on the Island.”
“I can see some benefits from going with this proposal. We are going to have the opportunity of having 20 more OPP staff members we can tap into for programs like marine, and when there are staffing shortages on the Island,” continued Staff Sgt. Webb. “The OPP command would like to come and give a presentation here on the process and to answer any questions.”
“Where would the OPP senior administration for Manitoulin be with this new set up)?” asked Brian Parker.
Staff Sgt. Webb explained this would remain on Manitoulin. “The administration centre would remain in Little Current. I don’t see any negatives in terms of service delivery for Manitoulin and there would be a connection with what we do and Espanola does.”
