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th ei fp .c a Th e IF P -H al to n H ill s | T hu rs da y, O ct ob er 10 ,2 01 9 | 4 www.northaltoncurling.com I web@nhgcc.ca I 905-877-5236 • Daytime Morning Leagues Available •Mon, Wed & Fri - Men's Drop In format • Tues & Thurs - Women's Drop In format • All skill levels welcome! North Halton is available for lounge & ice rentals This presentation is ideally suited for those who have a six figure income or an investment portfolio of $250,000 + Trademarks, including IG PrivateWealth Management, are owned by IGM Financial Inc. and licensed to its subsidiary corporation Wealth ManageMent Dinner SeMinar Your Host: Thomas Savage RSVP byTuesday Oct 22, 2019 Reservations are Required Contact : Lay Arato, 905-864-4111 Investors Group Securities Inc. Topics & Strategies: • Creating Your Retirement Paycheque • How to Guarantee Your Retirement Income For Life • Tax Efficient Investing Using Corporate Class Investments • Use Of A Testamentary Trust To Enhance & PreserveWealth Where: The Club at North Halton 363 Maple AvenueWest (at Trafalgar) Georgetown, Ontario, Canada L7G 4S5 When: Thursday Oct 24th 2019 Reception 6:30 - 7:00 pm Dinner & Seminar 7:00 - 8:00 pm "You are cordially invited to be our guest for a complimentary dinner at The Club at North Halton. Where wewill share with you our strategies forWealthManagement and Retirement Planning". Halton Police Chief Ste- phen Tanner says a provin- cial decision to decommis- sion Police Liaison Offi- cers (PLOs) at large pris- ons across Ontario, will have a significant impact on the Halton taxpayer if not reversed. The chief noted during a meeting of the Halton Po- lice Board on Oct. 3 that Halton police currently have three PLOs who work full-time at Maplehurst Correctional Complex and the Vanier Centre for Wom- en in Milton. These officers, Tanner noted, carry out criminal investigations inside the prison for which Halton po- lice receive funding from the Province. This year that funding amounted to $400,000. "There is so much work to do inside that correc- tional facility. The correc- tional officers cannot do criminal investigations. They cannot do drug charges," said Tanner. "We're there to deal with the hundreds of assaults, the drug investigations and our officers also play a role every time there is a situa- tion where a provincial correctional officer lays his hands on an inmate." Tanner said he was re- cently contacted by the Ministry of the Solicitor General who informed him that effective Dec. 31, 2019 any agreement between the Ministry and Halton police for policing service in correctional institutions is terminated. "Moving forward, cor- rectional services will le- verage its own intelligence resources including filed intelligence officers and in- stitutional security teams to gather intelligence with- in facilities to identify po- tential threats, prevent drug trafficking, and de- tect contraband items," wrote Assistant Deputy Minister Christina Danyl- chenko in a letter to Tan- ner, which was provided to insidehalton. "The government is committed to working with our policing partners to en- sure that criminal matters in our correctional facili- ties are identified and ap- propriately investigated." Tanner noted correc- tional services has always done its own intelligence work and emphasized that is not what his officers do there. While Halton police will no longer have a presence in Maplehurst they will still be required to return to the prison every time a criminal investigation needs to be carried out. Tanner says this will create efficiency and bud- get issues since Halton po- lice will no longer receive provincial funding for this work. "This may add 20-25 minutes to every assault investigation there. Every officer from Milton who goes to Maplehurst will have to go through security and all those processes," said Tanner. "Frankly it's a total mess. It's one of the worst decisions I have ever seen from an operational per- spective." In her letter Danylchen- ko says the Province is moving to establish a stan- dardized approach to po- lice engagement across the correctional system. She said this will ensure a consistent and effective response to criminal mat- ters as well as improve col- laboration on intelligence gathering. The Assistant Deputy Minister said this change would have no impact on the safety and security of Maplehurst or the Vanier Centre and noted the same process is in place at 21 in- stitutions across the prov- ince, which do not have PLOs onsite. Tanner said those 21 in- stitutions are small pris- ons and as such having no PLOs makes sense because police are only called upon to conduct criminal inves- tigations every now and again. Maplehurst, Tanner pointed out, has around 1,800 inmates and is the site of one third of the assaults that take place in Halton. "What we've heard to- day tells me that they are contemplating a change without having worked out the details first and this has been a hallmark of the new government," said Oakville Mayor and Halton Police Board Chair Rob Burton. "I think it would be ap- propriate for the board to write back to the Solicitor General to advise that changes are better when they are thoroughly thought through and con- sulted with the recipients of the change then adapted. When it's just announced you end up with scram- bling. Scrambling always costs more." Tanner noted he and the board plan to push back against the proposed changes. "This will have impacts on the correctional officers and on the facility and cer- tainly on the police ser- vice," said Tanner. "There's also no way the citizens of Halton should have to pay more money than any other citizen in Ontario for policing just because there is a very large provincial correc- tional facility in Halton." NEWS POLICE CHIEF SAYS PROVINCE'S DECISION WILL COST TAXPAYERS DAVID LEA dlea@metroland.com