“Thank you, farewell, the end.”
With those five words, Thamesville’s Pat Weaver last month concluded an unprecedented five-year run as president of the Ontario Association of Police Service Boards, the culmination of which was sweeping changes in policing in Ontario.
Weaver was recently honoured before 300 attendees at the association’s annual meeting in London.
Ryan Teschner, Inspector General of Policing of Ontario, said Weaver’s leadership in helping the Community Safety and Policing Act come to fruition, helped position “Ontario’s police governance system as the very best in Canada. Mr. Weaver’s work has not only benefited our province, but has also served as a shining example for others across the country to follow.
“Beyond his professional achievements, Mr. Weaver has always been a kind, sincere and positive individual – a colleague who never lost sight of the fact that we are all citizens of the same world. It is without a doubt that his ability to foster a collaborative and supportive environment has been instrumental in our collective success to date.”
An appointee since 2016, Weaver became president in September of 2020 when he said the group was undergoing a “seismic” shift.
“We had lost our executive director, massive changes were coming, and we either needed to fold the organization or blow it up and start over,” he said.
Previously, a new president was elected every year.
“We needed stability to get through the changes to the Police Act,” he said. “Changing the regulations was a six-year process. The devil is in the details. We changed the laws. It hadn’t been done in 30 years.”
He said the legislation, passed in April of last year, affects communities in three major ways.
“For years, we have been hearing that we need to defund the police. We don’t. We need to ‘re-fund’ the police according to community needs,” he said.
He said under the new act, unarmed special constables and civilians can be used in several new ways to help reduce policing costs.
“For example, if you look at records management, just the basic paperwork, we have always had a sergeant in charge of that office. We were paying $157,000 for an office manager – why? We need our police to be on the road and out in the community, not doing bureaucratic jobs.”
Weaver said one of the biggest issues is getting meaningful community input.
“What do you want your police to do? Do you want them to be social service officers or mental health nurses, or do you want them to be cops?” he asked.
He said under the previous act, if an officer took a mental health patient to the emergency department, that officer couldn’t leave that person until they were admitted.
“That could be eight to 12 hours; you might have to change shifts and take an officer off the road to stay at the hospital,” he said. “Every first-class constable in Ontario is making $100,000 or more. Is that what you want them to be doing, and do you want to pay them for that, or will you let us change the rules to mix our budgets with mental health budgets and provide those services in other ways?
“For the past ten years, we’ve had a program where a mental health nurse and a CKPS officer go to calls together. The scene belongs to the mental health nurse, and they decide if police intervention is needed. That program is now spreading across the province. That’s the type of innovation that will only expand under the new regulations.”
The act now makes local police boards more responsible and liable for the community safety plans.
“They direct the police – the police deliver what they are directed to do,” Weaver said. There is more local control in meeting community needs and expectations.”
Police chiefs now have the authority to suspend officers without pay in cases of severe disciplinary issues.
“Previously, officers couldn’t be suspended without pay until they were convicted in court. They received full pay for cases that could drag on through the system for six years. People got tired of that,” he said.”
Weaver said this goes in place to address the few bad seeds in the system.
“To be fair, we have more than 17,000 police officers in Ontario, and we’ve written this for only about 20. I suspect it will be used in only the most severe cases, but it’s a tool that chiefs now have,” he said.
Weaver, who remains chair of the Chatham-Kent Police Services Board, a role he’s held for eight years, credits the Ursuline Sisters for his desire to serve the community.
“When I was a student at the Pines, I was told by Sister Anne Denomy and the other sisters that you always have the opportunity to effect change and you shouldn’t turn it down,” he said. “Why wouldn’t you use that opportunity?”
Weaver has also been involved in several community organizations, including the United Way, Community Futures, Heritage Credit Union, and Entegrus, has served on many municipal boards and committees, and was a volunteer firefighter for several years.
He recently received the King Charles Coronation Pin of Distinction from the Solicitor General of Ontario. However, due to Weaver’s aversion to publicity, the medal was presented privately in the Solicitor General’s office in Toronto.
“I was surprised, because I was just dropping off some blueberries to him on my way to Bancroft. There is a lovely picture of me somewhere accepting the medal in my cottage attire,” he laughed.
He was also presented with the King Charles Coronation Medal for volunteerism in Canada.
Of his time in police governance, he said, “It’s been a ride, it’s been an education, and it was exciting to be a part of something that would have such a great effect right across the province. It’s cool to help write a law.”
