KAGAWONG—The Manitoulin detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) will not be losing its staff sergeant/detachment commander and administrative staff to Espanola if the Manitoulin OPP is amalgamated with Espanola OPP.

This was confirmed by Manitoulin OPP detachment Staff Sergeant Kevin Webb after the issue had been raised by Billings Township council at a meeting last week.

Billings Councillor Brian Parker said at last week’s meeting, “I will be asking Kevin Webb (Manitoulin OPP staff sergeant-detachment commander) if the senior management and administrate staff will remain on the Island or be moved to Espanola with the proposed amalgamation. I have heard that they (OPP) may be shifting the main headquarters from Manitoulin to Espanola.”

“We were told Little Current would be where the detachment office headquarters would be located previously,” said Councillor Parker. “But if we lose that we are losing local people from the Island.”

Councillors Barb Erskine and Tom Imrie agreed council should pass a strongly worded motion requesting that in the event the OPP amalgamation does take place that the detachment commander and administrative staff remain on the Island.

It was suggested by Councillor Sharon Alkenbrack that this motion should also be forwarded to the Manitoulin Municipal Association (MMA) for its support as well.

Council passed a motion that in the event the Manitoulin OPP detachment is amalgamated with the Espanola detachment, that the detachment commander and administrative staff remain on Manitoulin Island and that this resolution be forwarded to the Community Policing Advisory Committee and the Manitoulin Municipal Association for review.

Staff Sergeant Webb told the Recorder that “council wants to make sure that the OPP staff stay here on the Island. There has been no movement on this proposal as of yet. There hasn’t been a decision made on this as of yet as to whether there will be an amalgamation of the Manitoulin and Espanola OPP detachments. This would be included in the next phase of the process-as to how this new amalgamate format would look.”

Staff Sergeant Webb said that the motion that has been put forward by Billings will be added to the overall information being considered by the OPP commission committee in the next phase of the proposals development. 

“The first step that will have to be taken and decided on is  if there is actually going to be an amalgamation of the OPP for Espanola and Manitoulin,” said Staff Sergeant Webb. “Then there would be discussion take place as to how it would look structurally. The commission has had some discussions with municipalities in regards to the proposal.”

However, the staff sergeant added, “from my perspective the current service provided on Manitoulin Island will not be diminished if the amalgamation does go forward.”