The potential cost of a new police headquarters is a concern to some Thunder Bay At-large city councillors.

The five of them, Mark Bentz, Aldo Ruberto, Rebecca Johnson, Trevor Giertuga and Peng You, took part in a virtual townhall Thursday night, touching on a variety of topics, including taxes, the multi-use turf facility, roundabout at Edward and Redwood, and more.

A question came in, concerned about building a new HQ due to the cost.  Mark Bentz agreed the roughly $56-million price is on his mind, even though the Balmoral Street building is outdated for what police need.   “You would need to convince me why you couldn’t move the civilian staff to a different building, or even the officers to a different building.  And not have to build a facility that’s in excess of 100,000 square feet.”

He also pointed to how other groups in the city work.

“All organizations of that size typically do operate out of different buildings.   I know the City of Thunder Bay has dozens of sites we operate out of… it would be nice to be under one roof,” he noted.

Councillor Peng You added he’d like to hear from retired police officers, and that an option is using empty buildings.  Trevor Giertuga reiterated satellite buildings have been considered, while Rebecca Johnson prefers to see money spent on preventing crime before a new HQ starts going up.