In an open letter, Nathan Colquhoun appeals to the conscience of Sarnia Police Board Chair Paul Wiersma, challenging the flawed justification for a $100 million+ police fortress and urging him to choose a legacy of community care.
Dear Paul Wiersma (City of Sarnia Police Service Board Chair),
I'm writing this today because I still believe you are an honourable man who wants what is best for Sarnia. I have respected your years of service to this community, and I believe that service comes from a place of genuine care.
It is because of that respect that I must speak plainly. I fear you have been captured by a flawed and costly story—a story that insists a $100 million+ police fortress is our only path to safety, when all the evidence shows what Sarnia truly needs is an investment in healing, housing, and care.
Before the first town hall, I asked you privately if this building was the legacy you wanted to leave. Since then, your own words have provided a clear and troubling answer, cementing a legacy not of vision of a healthy community, but of championing an ego project for a police chief that isn't from Sarnia and clearly doesn't care about us.
A Question of Truth
The public was invited to town halls to provide "input" on the police's strategic plan. Yet, in a recent email, you admitted the truth:
“The purpose of the sessions was not to consult with the public about whether a new police facility was required or not.”
You went on to explain that the decision to approve a new facility "in principle" was made by the board back on August 27, 2024—a full year before these so-called consultations began.
This admission merely confirmed what we all experienced. The first hour of each session was a one-way sales pitch for the new facility. The centerpiece was a promotional video, produced with taxpayer money, designed to convince us of the building's dire state. Think about that, Paul. The board used public money to create a marketing campaign for a $100 million+ ego project and then presented it to us under the guise of ‘public consultation.’ All while the $4.43 million repair plan identified by your own consultants—a viable, far cheaper alternative—was never seriously presented as an option.
A Question of Responsibility
When presented with Project Right Response—a detailed proposal to reallocate police funding to a paramedic-led crisis team—you have consistently deferred responsibility. In The Sarnia Observer, you pointed to jurisdictional complexities and the need for "more finer details." In an email, you stated the Board “does not have the authority to action the recommendation.” Yet, your board had no issue finding its authority when it decided, in your own words, “The board has decided that we will build a new facility. That's a board decision.”
This isn't a lack of power; it's a lack of will.
In your email, you dismissed this concrete proposal by stating, “We will be looking for overall themes that can help us prioritize for the next three years.”
Paul, with all due respect, a fully researched, actionable plan that directly addresses the number one issue your own Chief says is burdening his officers is more than a "theme." It is a roadmap. It is the most significant piece of public input you have received, given to you for free in a professional manner. Rather than engaging with a detailed and actionable plan, your response was to invalidate it. By reducing Project Right Response to a vague 'theme,' you are refusing to engage with a serious solution to the very problems your Chief highlights daily, signalling that the board is not truly interested in alternatives. You know as well as I do Paul that boards can either cast a vision and operationalize staff towards it or they just rubber stamp and lobby for a vision handed to them by their top staff.
Can you seriously not imagine a world where your $30+million dollar a year organization functions strong and healthy without demanding a Ferrari when a simple tune-up will do? You should step down from the board immediately if you can't. We need a board that will use their position of power to keep our community safe, not advance ulterior agendas that have nothing to do with your mandate.
A leader genuinely interested in solving this crisis and keeping our community safe would take immediate, practical steps:
Immediately place Project Right Response on the next Board agenda for a full and transparent discussion asking the questions: how could we make this happen; and what are the alternative options to a plan that's already been given to you?
Table a motion to pause all spending on the new headquarters project until a formal, public review of Project Right Response is given serious consideration.
Directly lead the collaboration you say is needed by formally inviting Lambton County Council and Emergency Medical Services to a joint meeting to explore this new approach to community safety.
A Final Appeal to Conscience
Chief Davis defends the ever-expanding police budget with a metaphor: “Why would you defund the service that is actually keeping the water back…?”
Paul, the "water"—our city's crisis of mental health and addiction—is rising precisely because we pour all our resources into building a bigger dam, rather than investing upstream in the solutions that would manage the flow.
You are a man of faith, as am I. The Christian tradition is not about building fortresses to protect institutions; it is about building wells to welcome people. When you said to me: “I appreciate that you feel we should allocate more resources into a social area. We disagree.”
You are choosing the fortress over the well.
In your final email, you suggested I take my concerns to the Inspectorate of Policing. But this is not a procedural issue for a tribunal. It is a moral choice about the future of Sarnia, and it is a choice that rests with you.
The path to a better legacy is right in front of you. Will you be the Chair who oversaw the construction of a monument to a failed strategy, or the leader who had the courage to change course and truly invest in the health and humanity of his city?
One direction might get you a statue. The other will be told they are a good and faithful servant. Choose today whom you are serving, Paul.
Sincerely,
Nathan Colquhoun
