Erika Sherk
Northern News Services
Wednesday, March 7, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - The NWT will soon have a new leader of law enforcement.

RCMP Supt. Tom Middleton, currently of Edmonton, has been selected to take over as commanding officer of G Division and will arrive early this month.

He will be in charge of about 240 employees who work in 20 detachments serving 33 communities across the NWT - a "formidable responsibility" according to Supt. Rick Roy.

"It's beyond expectation for me." Middleton said of his new posting as commanding officer. "The RCMP members (in the NWT) all volunteer for the Northern service so they all want to be there. They're highly motivated."

An outdoorsman, Middleton said he is looking forward to "fishing in the summer and snowmobiling in the winter."

Yellowknife detachment commander Insp. Roch Fortin said that he is looking forward to Middleton's arrival.

"It's always nice to have new, fresh ideas coming up," he said.

Supt. Roy has been acting commanding officer of G Division since Pat McCloskey left the post about three months ago.

"We're quite excited at the prospect of Supt. Middleton coming here," said Roy.

He said the RCMP expects Middleton will have all sorts of progressive ideas from his experience in the South.

Roy said that though he was acting commanding officer in the absence of a permanent one, several senior RCMP officers worked together to fill the role.

He said the most important thing he learned over the past three months was the value of teamwork.

"It's amazing what can be accomplished with everyone working together," he said.

The role of a commanding officer in the North is similar in most ways to the role in the South, said Roy, with "unique challenges due to the remoteness of many of our communities."

G Division's new commanding officer was born and raised in Winnipeg. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Manitoba, Middleton was a park ranger in eastern Manitoba for three years.

He worked closely with the RCMP during his years as a ranger, which got him interested in policing as a possible career.

After completing his MBA at the University of Manitoba, he joined the RCMP in 1976 and was posted to B.C., spending the first 17 years of his policing career there.

Middleton moved into the administrative side of the force in 1993 when he trained in Ottawa to understand the organizational aspects of the RCMP.

By 2000, he was officer in charge of client services for K Division in Edmonton. He is currently serving as officer in charge of federal policing for Alberta.

Middleton will be promoted to the rank of chief superintendent when he comes North.