Kearney council wants OPP billing model scrapped

Obscenely high and unsustainable policing costs. OPP bills are destroying communities its officers are supposed to protect. Apparent self-interest is cloaked in the guise of public safety needs. Where is the political outrage while OPP costs continue to climb? Who is going to bring policing costs in this province under control?

Kearney council wants OPP billing model scrapped

Postby Thomas » Tue Mar 18, 2014 11:58 am

KEARNEY­ – Proposed changes to the OPP billing model could spell a 200 per cent increase and Kearney council wants to see the model scrapped.

A resolution, passed unanimously by recorded vote, was brought forward at the Feb. 21 council meeting requesting the province scrap the proposed funding model immediately.

The resolution requests the province to take immediate action to “address the root causes for the OPP cost increases rather then transfer the cost burden to municipalities.”

The model, according to coun. Ken Ball’s resolution, would see OPP costs for the town increase annual from about $100,000 to $300,000, an impact of more than 6.6 per cent increase in tax levy.

“…the new methodology would charge each municipality a flat $260 per household fee for the base costs related to providing police services, plus a variable charge for each call for service in that municipality,” states the resolution. “The rationale for this is that there is a base fixed cost for providing police services that must be borne by all participating municipalities, regardless of the number of calls for service that the OPP responds to in each municipality. The OPP advised that 73 per cent of their costs are fixed (i.e. base costs) and 27 per cent are variable.”

The resolution goes on to state that the level of annual cost for a small municipality is “outrageous and unsustainable and would put an unacceptable burden on our ratepayers.”

The resolution proposes Kearney developing a plan with like-minded municipalities to set up their own police service, “an action that if replicated across the Province of Ontario would seriously undermine the operating effectiveness of the Ontario Provincial Police.”

Ball says that as a taxpayer he emailed the premier requesting a response about the added burden to the taxpayers.

“I got no response as a taxpayer and I thought, ‘How are we going to change the minds of those who are trying to decide a funding formula which was fair yesterday and all of a sudden it is not fair?’ ” he said.

He says if they don’t as individuals and as communities let the people who have the ability to change things know how they feel, this billing model will be passed and will be a huge burden on those who cannot afford a 6.6 per cent increase.

“There are people in our community who have a hard time making ends meet as it is,” he said. “How can they do that if we don’t all get together and use every tool in our toolbox to get the word out and to get the message across.”

Ball says they have successfully worked with the OPP and it is not a complaint about the services provided, but the formula that may be implemented for 2015.

Coun. Louise Wadsworth says she represented Kearney at meeting hosted by the OPP about the funding formula.

“We all gave our response to the presenters on what we felt,” she said. “It was very clear at that meeting from various different municipalities that some were going to be a heck of a lot farther up the creek than we were.”

She added there were other municipalities that would see the OPP costs come down under the proposed new model.

Coun. Steve Sainsbury says the resolution was modeled on one by another municipality and has a two-fold purpose. He says the resolution can be used to explain to people as to what the province is going to do to the municipality.

“What in effect the province has done on this is it has pitted a group of municipalities against another group of municipalities and have set an impossible timeline,” he said.

He says this hike, like the highways, Official Plan, asset management planning, and other things connected with the province, is downloaded added costs on the municipalities.

“I have no doubt in my mind that they are going to grind this down and all we can do is to make it as clear as possible to them, and the taxpayers have to know this stuff is happening,” he said.

Coun. Barry Dingwall says he agrees with the resolution but doesn’t think they will get a response from anyone until they do something like request the cost of policing from the RCMP.

The resolution will be forwarded to Premier Kathleen Wynne, Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services Madeleine Meilleur and Attorney General for Ontario John Gerretsen as well as the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario and all rural Ontario municipalities with a permanent population of 10,000 or less.

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