IGNACE — A request for tender has been issued for a builder to construct a new Ontario Provincial Police detachment in Ignace, says the area’s MPP.
Kenora-Rainy River MPP Greg Rickford was in Ignace on Thursday to make a pair of community announcements, including confirming that Ignace is soon set to get a new building for the OPP, replacing the decades-old structure that exists currently.
Rickford said, aside from bringing policing infrastructure in the community up to modern standards, a new detachment can serve as an important tool to attract and retain officers.
“Young people come up here and they look around and they say ‘jeez, I might stay here,’” Rickford said in an interview. “So why just do two years? Why not stay?”
“We're seeing increasingly that more and more OPP officers are calling Northwestern Ontario their long-term home and a place to work, (and) a new modern facility is a very important retention strategy.”
In his remarks to the community, Rickford called a new station for Ignace “long overdue.”
The new Ignace detachment is one of four new such OPP facilities slated to be built in Northwestern Ontario communities; that also includes Kenora, Red Lake and Sioux Lookout, as well as a promised new regional headquarters in Thunder Bay. That announcement was made by Ontario Solicitor General Michael Kerzner in May.
Site selection has also been completed for a new detachment in Greenstone.
Rickford said he couldn’t speak to the total cost of the Ignace build, as the project is out for tender.
Ignace mayor Kim Baigrie said, while she would have preferred the new station to be right on the highway (the site is slightly off the main Trans-Canada thoroughfare that runs through town), she’s very pleased about what it will mean for the local officers in the township.
“To work out of the small station that they do have, I'm sure the police officers are going to be really excited for a new facility and so is the community.”
Baigrie said she expects it will help, not only with policing local issues, but those around highway traffic enforcement as well.
“It’s not just community issues, it's highway issues as well,” Baigrie said.
“This project demonstrates a shared commitment with our government to ensure the OPP is as effective as possible at keeping communities safe,” OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique was quoted as saying in a media release. “Providing our officers, civilian and volunteer members with these modern new facilities will better position the OPP to evolve as we strive to be our very best at delivering on our public safety mandate.”
Rickford said it comes at a time when, not only is Ignace slated to eventually see a lot of activity connected with the deep geological repository for nuclear waste — subject to regulatory and licensing reviews — the area is also seeing a steady amount of east-west traffic.
“Obviously, Ignace is on a tremendous growth curve with the great prospects that it has ahead of it, but traffic is increasing across Northwestern Ontario,” he said. “We've seen the geopolitical circumstances as just between Canada and the United States alone, a lot more Canadian traffic on our Trans-Canada Highway.”
“That's a good thing, but it also raises issues of safety, and it couldn't be more important to make sure that OPP have the right tools, including a state-of-the-art facility right here in the central part of Northwestern Ontario, really when you think about it, to do their important work.”
