Going full OPP will make a fine mess for Port Hope taxpayers
Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 3:18 pmGoing full OPP will make a fine mess for Port Hope taxpayers
To the editor:
It would appear that four Port Hope councillors have been seduced by what appears to be great savings in policing costs by switching to the Ontario Provincial Police. As a former OPP officer and journalist, I would like to paraphrase Oliver Hardy, who partnered with Stan Laurel to form a critically acclaimed slapstick comedy duo in Hollywood's heyday, by stating, "Here's another fine mess you're about to get the town into, councillors."
The OPP solution suggested to Port Hope council and, by extension, its taxpaying citizens, does not sit well with some other Ontario communities that are experiencing the OPP brand of policing. Larger centres such as St. Thomas, Kenora and Orillia, along with smaller local communities such as Campbellford, Brighton, Apsley and Norwood, are feeling the OPP cost squeeze. Why? Well, the current provincial government negotiated a contract with that police service which boasted a two-year wage freeze in the second and third years of the deal, while promising OPP officers will get a minimum 8.5 per cent catch-up raise in 2014. Why a minimum raise? The same contract guarantees the OPP will be the highest paid police service in Ontario at its conclusion. The catch-up part results from a longstanding and flawed funding philosophy that OPP officers should be paid as much as their colleagues in Metropolitan Toronto. Toronto has always been the benchmark and it's one that Port Hope council will have to deal with regardless of whether its town has an autonomous police service, or one that reports to a headquarters in Orillia.
Cost savings, long-term? I don't think so. Just another fine mess at taxpayers' expense.
Tom Philp
Peterborough
http://www.northumberlandnews.com/opini ... -taxpayers
To the editor:
It would appear that four Port Hope councillors have been seduced by what appears to be great savings in policing costs by switching to the Ontario Provincial Police. As a former OPP officer and journalist, I would like to paraphrase Oliver Hardy, who partnered with Stan Laurel to form a critically acclaimed slapstick comedy duo in Hollywood's heyday, by stating, "Here's another fine mess you're about to get the town into, councillors."
The OPP solution suggested to Port Hope council and, by extension, its taxpaying citizens, does not sit well with some other Ontario communities that are experiencing the OPP brand of policing. Larger centres such as St. Thomas, Kenora and Orillia, along with smaller local communities such as Campbellford, Brighton, Apsley and Norwood, are feeling the OPP cost squeeze. Why? Well, the current provincial government negotiated a contract with that police service which boasted a two-year wage freeze in the second and third years of the deal, while promising OPP officers will get a minimum 8.5 per cent catch-up raise in 2014. Why a minimum raise? The same contract guarantees the OPP will be the highest paid police service in Ontario at its conclusion. The catch-up part results from a longstanding and flawed funding philosophy that OPP officers should be paid as much as their colleagues in Metropolitan Toronto. Toronto has always been the benchmark and it's one that Port Hope council will have to deal with regardless of whether its town has an autonomous police service, or one that reports to a headquarters in Orillia.
Cost savings, long-term? I don't think so. Just another fine mess at taxpayers' expense.
Tom Philp
Peterborough
http://www.northumberlandnews.com/opini ... -taxpayers