The Regular town council meeting for Fort Frances’ mayor and council was held Monday afternoon. Some agenda items brought to the floor were the 2025 OPP report, efforts to recruit a youth councillor and an amendment to a bylaw banning certain snake species to be kept in captivity.
The meeting kicked off with OPP Staff Sergeant Dereck McLean delivering the Fort Frances detachment commander’s report.
The OPP are required to deliver reports to their respective municipalities annually in accordance with the Community Safety and Policing Act, 2019. This is for the purpose of transparency of public funds, allowing full awareness from the public with regard to how tax dollars are spent in policing. It also serves as a performance review of sorts, documenting how police have responded to calls and the statistics of crime trends within the municipality.
McLean reported a reduction in local violent crimes of 12.3 per cent and property crimes of 5.6 per cent. “We’re happy to report that,” he said. “It’s where we like to see things trending in both violent and property crime, in a downwards trend.”
McLean also reported a 4.2 per cent reduction in incidents of drug trafficking and passion. However, he did note that there was a rise in “other crime occurrences,” which he said is mostly comprised of bail violations. McLean said this is expected to rise again in 2026.
For the full 2025 commander’s report from the Fort Frances OPP detachment, visit the Town of Fort Frances website or go to http://bit.ly/4coxxy9.
Town council has not yet received any inquiries or applications for the youth councillor position available for a high school student living in Fort Frances.
The position requires the selected student for the youth councillor role to attend one meeting per month from October to June; bring a youth perspective and voice to council meetings; represent voices of their peers; submit one report on their activities on council at the end of the term.
Requirement for the position include:
- Be a full-time student enrolled in grades nine through 12, within the Town of Fort Frances.
- Live within Fort Frances.
- A written recommendation from a teacher, Principal, Vice Principal, Guidance Counsellor, or other secondary school or school board staff that has firsthand knowledge of the student’s aptitude and character.
- Demonstrate an interest in municipal governance or politics.
Although no one has expressed interest in this role yet, council is committed to keeping the position available and is continuing to encourage students in town to apply.
The position comes with benefits of a Memorial Sports Centre membership, Corporate Golf membership and a municipally owned boat slip with launch fees at a 50 per cent reduction. To assist in bringing more interest to the role, council has decided to add a bursary to this list of perks, however, the value has not yet been determined.
Another agenda item discussed Monday evening was the discussion of whether to make an amendment to a bylaw preventing certain snakes from being kept in captivity within town.
A letter to council members from a member of the public was requesting to change municipal bylaw 8.2 to make exemptions for ball pythons. The resident who wrote the letter expressed wishes to start a breeding business to be kept as pets.
Before the motion was brought to the floor, Fort Frances Mayor Andrew Hallikas noted that the argument was well presented, and the resident went about requesting an amendment in the right way.
“I’m not necessarily pro or con on snakes, but I thought here was a young lady who made a very cogent, coherent argument,” Hallikas said. “She did her homework, she looked at her bylaws, and is suggesting a change, and I’m saying that’s the way to go about it.”
With ball pythons being small, non-venomous and one of the most commonly kept reptiles as pets worldwide, the motion was carried with no opposition and the council decided on a report to consider the change.
