Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, police members, friends and family.

Let me start by thanking some of the people who have made this event possible through their hard work. S/Sgt. Ted Whittle, Sgt. Chuck Seguin, Mr. Gerald Lalande, Ms. Alison Karoglan and the staff at the Royal Canadian Legion.

I would also like to recognize the 22 Wing Band under the direction of Warrant Officer Chip Kean, our piper Mr. Patrick Corrente, Mr. Yvon Montcalm for the Innovocation, our singer Mr. Brent Labrosse, and Master of Ceremonies Retired Sgt. Norm Shillington.

Thanks to all of our personnel who participated in today's event and to the members of our Colour Party. I know some of our personnel felt safer marching today knowing that I wasn't in the parade marching with them. Special thanks to Chief Noel Catney, Peel Regional Police and Chief Ian Davidson of the Greater Sudbury Police Service for providing members of their Colour Parties to march with our service here today.

Thank you to Board Chair Mr. William Ferguson for his kind words today and to the members of our Police Services Board for having the confidence in me to name me the successor to Chief Berrigan. Our organization is very fortunate to have such committed people on the Board. It is unfortunate that most people in our community have no idea as to the number of hours each of you puts in to ensure that we are providing them with the service that they deserve.

Thank you to Mayor Fideli and Mayor Brazeau for your participation in today's event. I look forward to working with both of you and the members of your counsels to help shape the future of North Bay and Callander.

It was an honour to have been sworn in today by Judge Roland Harris. Judge Harris served as a Crown Attorney in North Bay before being appointed to the Bench and I was fortunate enough to have developed a friendship with him. I know that the residents of our community were well served with then Mr. Harris as their Crown and I am confident that the residents of Barrie are being equally well served with him on the Bench.

I would also like to acknowledge Mr. Bob Wood, Member of Parliament and Ms. Monique Smith Member of Provincial Parliament. I am very pleased that you are here today as a strong relationship between our elected officials locally, provincially and federally is essential to our quality of life, and I intend to build on that relationship for the betterment of our community.

Special thanks to the many police officers, especially police leaders from outside services, who traveled long distances to be here today. Your presence will serve as a reminder to our community that our fraternity is strong and pride in the policing profession is alive and well.

I have been blessed to have many close friends who have supported me throughout my career and to them I would like to say words couldn't express my gratitude for your friendship.

I would like to say thanks to my entire family, especially my Mom and Dad who instilled in me the basic values that helped to mold me into the person I am today.

To my loving wife and best friend Karen and to our children Matthew and Amy thank you for your ongoing support. You have endured extraordinary hours, call outs in the middle of the night, cancelled plans and missed special events. Throughout you have stood by me sharing both the good times and the bad. I know that you will be there for me to face the many new challenges that lie ahead.

I note that there are a number of fellow FBI National Academy graduates in the room and they may recognize the following quote from the Wizard of Oz, "if you always do, what you've always done, then you'll always get, what you've always got". This is one of my favorite quotes because it speaks to change and what happens if we go through life without change.

I have been very fortunate to have learned about change management from one of the greatest visionary chiefs in the province, Chief George Berrigan. Under his leadership our Police Service has experienced more positive in change in the last four and a half years than most organizations will experience in a lifetime. Thanks to his efforts we are a very progressive and professional organization that is adaptable to the ever-changing needs of the residents of North Bay and Callander.

Chief, I cannot begin to thank you enough for everything that you have done for me personally, for our Police Service and for our community. You are and always will be a, "Cop's Cop". I wish you and Liz a long, healthy and happy retirement. You can head into this next stage of your life knowing three very important things:

1. The Buffalo Bills can't get any worse.
2. Your passion for policing will live on through your son Constable Ryan Berrigan of the Peel Regional Police Service.
3. You are leaving our organization after setting the table for strong healthy growth to the future.

Chief, you have taught me that a good leader brings a vision and hope for the future. As an organization we cannot dwell on our past successes. We must always look to the future and challenge ourselves to find new more efficient and effective ways to serve the public. The only constant in policing is change itself and we must strive to manage this change, while encouraging subordinates to think outside the box for the betterment of our organization and the communities we serve. To this end I am committed to establishing a strong communication strategy which will include continued ride a longs by Command Staff, regular staff meetings, ongoing briefings, continued meetings with the Association Executive and use of technology to get our message out both internally and externally. To accomplish this, we will use both the Internet and our Intranet to ensure a timely and comprehensive release of information.

Technology is a tool that can be used to make policing more efficient and effective. Our service has partnered with the Province in many initiatives designed to make our communities safer. We are connected throughout the Province with the Sex Offender Registry, ViClas, Major Case Management, and the Ontario Police Technology Information Cooperative. We are constantly investing in technology that ensures our Police Service operates in a modern and professional manner, such as the anticipated upgrade to our Prolog digital recorder for our radio and telephone systems. It will be a priority to see that our officers have access to Mobile Workstations in the cruisers, so that they can spend more time on patrol in the community, rather than sitting in the office accessing information. In the future they should be able to query suspect vehicles and persons, or access the picture of an individual to verify their identity through a Digital Mugshot System, directly from their cruiser, which is essentially their office.

To our policing counterparts across this province the North Bay Police Service will remain a strong and committed partner, as everyone in this room knows crime has no borders.

To our many invaluable community partners you can be assured that our personnel will continue to work with you for the betterment of our community. Our Mission Statement reads, "Dedicated to service, committed to Community", and I would encourage every one of our members to live this statement every day. Whether this means representing the service on a Board, participating in a fundraising initiative, being a member of a service club or community group or coaching a youth sports team your involvement will help shape the future of our community. Sir Robert Peel once wrote, "Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence". Those words are as true today as they were back in 1827.

Our team approach with community partners will continue to provide adaptable problem solving strategies through open communication, community consultation and support, experience, education and innovation.

I realize that working in the policing environment can be challenging and at times it is easy to become disillusioned. Often it may seem like nobody except you cares about the work that you are doing but be assured people in our community do care and their confidence level in our Police Service is high. We must collectively do whatever we can to maintain this high level of confidence. I am committed to providing you with the ongoing training required to ensure you have the requisite skills to do your jobs which are becoming more and more complicated daily.

In the next few years we will be losing a number of senior officers through retirements so there will be a great deal of movement and room for advancement. Again you have my assurances that we will do whatever we can to develop and train our future managers and leaders so that their transitions from one position to the next are as seamless as possible.

I am well aware that I am following in the footsteps of two great chiefs, Chief Berrigan and his predecessor Chief Ron Nagle who took the time to join us here today. Expectations are high and while I recognize the capacity of a leader to change the direction of an organization, I also believe equally in the capacity of the individual.

Hall of Fame Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lambardi once said, "Individual commitment to a group effort, that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work."

This is important for all of our members both sworn and civilian to note because every interaction you have with a member of our community reflects on our Police Service. I challenge you to put yourself in their shoes. Treat them the way you would expect to be treated. Pride and professionalism should show through in everything you do.

Yes we are becoming more accountable each day through the court system, the public complaint system, SIU and our internal standards. Yes we are held to a higher standard then most, but I challenge you to look at this as a positive not a negative. We should be held to a higher standard because we have sworn an oath to serve the public and ours is one of the finest callings in the World.

In closing I would like to say that I know that the journey that lies ahead will be fraught with many new challenges but I believe collectively we will be able to overcome any obstacle.

On behalf of Deputy Chief Williams and myself, thank you for your support and for permitting us the privilege of leading you into the future.

Chief Paul Cook