THUNDER BAY — It cost over $300,000 to cover legal fees for city police in the first three months of the year, putting a serious dent in the budget of the board overseeing the service.
As part of their legal obligation to service members the Thunder Bay Police Service Board is responsible for indemnification costs, but cannot predict what this cost might be year over year, according to board chair Karen Machado.
The board’s 2026 budget includes $50,000 for indemnifying legal fees but actual spending was more than six times that amount in just the first quarter, a total of $313,319.
The board also spent $105,990 of the $300,000 budgeted for its own legal fees.
The combined legal fees add up to $419,308 in spending, accounting for 75 per cent of all board spending to date and 44 per cent of the total annual budget of $960,430.
Machado spoke to the issue at Tuesday’s board meeting.
“When an officer or any staff member during the course of their duties gets charged with something, the board is responsible to ensure that they are indemnified, meaning we support them through the legal process,” she said.
She said the board knew this year there were potentially three big cases coming, and that cost was going to go up.
Although the Machado declined to say what cases she was referring to, citing privacy reasons, cases against former police chief Sylvie Hauth, former police counsel Holly Walboune, who was acquitted in April, and former officer Micheal Dimini, who is appealing a conviction, are all before the courts this year.
“Once and if the court process is done and if they’re acquitted, we’re responsible to cover their legal fees because they’ve done an action in good faith, within the boundaries, the rules, the processes. If they’re found guilty, then we’re not responsible for those costs.”
She said that in some cases the board has to pay up front.
“If they’re under an SIU investigation and have to go for an interview, we cover a maximum of that automatically. So those little things add up.”
According to a first-quarter budget report, the board has already spent over half its $960,430 annual budget, with legal fees accounting for more than half of all spending.
“So when I met with the city and their budget committee, I raised this and discussed it and our former secretaries spoke to them and looked at options and really, you can try and guesstimate or just leave it and be able to rationalize it because we all understand the process. It’s a legal obligation.”
She said, “We don’t want to go over budget, but it could be a consequence of charges.”
She said there has not been a clear trend in going over budget in this area.
“If you look back, I don’t think we were always over in that category, but when there’s big cases, big matters in front of the courts, there’s a large potential that we might have to, and I know Mayor Boshcoff mentioned potentially using funds seized by the police service to go towards this budget.”
She said there’s criteria on when the board can use that money, if and when it’s for the good of the community.
She said, “We would have to do some more research and look at if that’s an option.”
