(Today’s Northumberland file photo)
By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
While use-of-force training for the Cobourg Police Service has been done in conjunction with their Port Hope counterparts at a facility that is offered free of charge, the Cobourg Police Services Board heard at its January meeting that this may change.
Reviewing the report on use-of-force incidents, Board Vice-Chair Sean Graham noted that this facility is about to be put up for sale.
Haskins said that this also happened years ago, when that training had been conducted at the old Jack Heenan Arena. When that was no longer unavailable, training moved to the former George Hamilton Public School in Welcome.
“We have been advised the property will be put up for sale and potentially sold this year,” he said. Should a sale occur, they will have to search for a training site suitable to this need.
“It may not be available to us, for both police services, at no charge on a going-forward basis, so there may be the necessity for us to come together and look at identifying what our budget is.
“This is one of the issues that has been raised in our facilities report,” he added.
The Police Services Board has previously identified the need for a new facility which – as Haskins pointed out – could certainly incorporate space for this purpose in its design. As part of his Strong Mayor Powers budget, however, Cobourg Mayor Lucas Cleveland cancelled a study the board had requested for this purpose.
Instead, Haskins said, they will attempt to identify a suitable facility “at no cost to us or low cost.
“We are in program training now, and hopefully by spring we will have completed block training for 2026 – which will then mean we would need to identify a training facility or site for 2027.
“We should have months to be able to do that.”
