Belleville Police Service Board still working on adhering to regulations 3 years after they were released

The Community Safety and Policing Act (CSPA) was passed on March 26, 2019, but did not come into force until April 1, 2024.

The Act provided the goals of the framework, but a lengthy process was required to spell out the specific details in the regulations.

The Community Safety and Policing Act now has an implementation date of April 1, a full five years after it was passed, following a lengthy process involving more than 30 meetings with municipalities, advocates and police services and the filing of more than two dozen regulations to accompany the law.

The new act is huge, with a whopping 263 sections — more than 100 sections longer than the law it replaces — but new rules allowing police chiefs to suspend officers without pay in some circumstances are among those likely to garner the most public attention.

CBC

The Province of Ontario released 30 proposed regulations under the CSPA on December 18, 2023, a few months before the Act came into force.

On February 26-29, 2024 OAPSB in collaboration with the PAO, OACP, and OSOPA held the CSPA Summit conference in Toronto for Ontario’s policing partners and was attended by 700 delegates. This event focused on disseminating and discussing the Act’s details and its regulations.

The Summit will spotlight the major changes in the policing framework and assemble associations, boards, and police chiefs. It will feature presentations from industry experts, aiming to foster a collective understanding of the CSPA. Special attention will be given to how these changes affect police services of different sizes.

Who Should Attend?

Police Association Executives and Staff, Chiefs of Police and Senior Command, Professional Standards Branch Employees, Special Constable Supervisors, Police Services Board Members and Executive Staff

OAPSB

In March 2025, the Chair of the Police Board said the policies would be published by the beginning of September:

As for timelines, our CSPA Advisor from the Solicitor General’s office is aware of the work we’re doing and as with a number of other Police Service Boards is satisfied that the work is in progress and that the original deadlines were going to be difficult to meet, given the amount of work and the resources available to complete it in small to medium sized police services. This is an ongoing challenge that we hope to address in future budget cycles.

As for the Community Safety Plan you will recognize from section 250 of the CSPA that this is a municipal responsibility. We will be sharing our data from our surveys and feedback with them to assist in the development of this.

As for our website, and posting Annual Reports, moving forward we will comply with the requirements. Policies are being updated and we hope to have them on our website by the beginning of September – again the Sol Gen’s advisor is aware of our timeline and understands the effort is work in progress.

Chair Heather Smith

As of December 18, 2025 – 3 years to they day since the regulations were released, the Belleville Police Service Board is still working on “coming into compliance” with the CSPA requirements in a “staged way”:

The Belleville Police Service Board is working towards compliance with the Community Safety and Policing Act (2019), which came into effect in February of 2024 with regard to new regulations required of Police Service Boards (Sections 43 and 44 of the Act). Additionally the Board is working on updating its Policies as required, as per Section 38 of the Act.

The Ministry recognizes that this is an iterative process and that our Board is taking steps to get into compliance.

BPSB website

and that they expect to have the policies available in February 2026:

The Belleville Police Service is in the process of updating their policies. The Inspector General’s Advisor is aware of the progress we’re making and supportive of our process and timing of such. We anticipate publishing our policy on the website over the next three months when the committee is finished their work and the Board adopts the policy as presented by the Committee.

BPSB spokesperson email November 22, 2025

Open Council has previously reported they the Board:

• Doesn’t publish its Procedural Bylaw, policies or other procedures online
• Hasn’t emailed the 2026-2029 collective agreements to OPAAC
• Refuses to release the 2026-2029 collective agreements
• Subcommittees meet without providing public notice
• Strategic Plan lacks quantitative performance indicators

Other police boards are already compliant

• Cornwall published their policies by June 2025
• Kingston’s Procedural Bylaw is available on their website
• Cobourg publishes details about their subcommittees
• Many boards have announced and/or filed their collective agreements with OPAAC