Decision on OPP billing long way off: Naqvi

[Thomas]

Yasir Naqvi, the Ottawa-Centre MPP and minister of community safety and correctional services under the Kathleen Wynne government, has told Haliburton County officials that a decision on a new billing model for the OPP is not imminent.

Naqvi spoke to three of the county’s reeves, as well as politicians from the municipality of North Kawartha, during a conference call May 21.

“He basically confirmed that it was not a slam dunk,” Dysart et al Reeve Murray Fearrey told the paper.

The proposed billing formula, which seeks to redistribute OPP costs on a per household basis, would see policing costs in the county spike from $3.3 to more than $8.5 million next year.

The county’s politicians have been lobbying against the change for months and had requested a meeting with Naqvi, but had not heard back from his office.

Fearrey said this was broached during Wednesday’s conversation.

“He did confirm that he would meet with us at a later date,” Fearrey said. “We just moved the yard stick.”

A press release on the call was issued by Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock Liberal candidate Rick Johnson, who arranged Tuesday’s teleconference.

“During the call, MPP Naqvi made it clear that Haliburton County and North Kawartha will each have their concerns presented to the ministry by way of a formal face to face meeting before any new billing model is imposed,” the release reads. “He also made it clear that no final decision was imminent and that while AMO has submitted a report, it was one of many stakeholders being consulted on this issue and that he was committed to finding a model that is fair, transparent and equitable.”

A 43-page report released by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario in April supported the model being advocated by the government, or a variation on such, using a combination weighted assessment/per household metric.

The latter would have made the financial impact for the county worse than the original proposed model by a few thousand dollars.

Minden Hills Reeve Barb Reid was on the steering committee upon whose meetings the report was based and did not support the report.

Reid said it was difficult for her and other politicians from municipalities that would be negatively impacted by the formula to make their voices heard during the committee meetings that took place early this year.

“We feel there’s been some misrepresentation there,” Algonquin Highlands Reeve Carol Moffatt said of the AMO report.

Moffatt was grateful for the opportunity of Tuesday’s call, saying Naqvi was attentive, but noted the province is in election mode.

“It could be seen as an election promise,” she said.

Moffatt stressed it was important for residents to continue to press the issue, putting questions to provincial candidates, both in the county and, for seasonal residents, in their home constituencies.

To absorb the changes in the proposed model would equate to lower tier tax increases of between 20 and 36 per cent throughout the county.

“We had a good conversation for 45 minutes with Yasir Naqvi,” Reid wrote in an email to the paper. “We expressed our concerns about the genesis of the model. Five mayors put forward the proposition that allocating costs on households was the best approach. These five mayors all stood to gain from this model.”

Reid was referring to the Mayor’s Coalition for Affordable, Sustainable and Accountable Policing (ASAP), headed by the mayors of Tillsonburg, Cochrane, Penetanguishene, Norfolk County and Parry Sound.

Under the proposed model, seasonal residences are weighted evenly with year-round ones, and county politicians and staff have suggested permanent population, perhaps with some weighting to account for seasonal residents, would be a fairer metric.

“We also told him we found it difficult to understand how, if the auditor general’s report says that 85 per cent of OPP costs are salaries/benefits, why we can’t just work on allocating the remaining 15 per cent.”

The auditor general released a report in 2012 calling for a new, more transparent billing model and making a number of recommendations, many of which are not included in the proposed model.

Eliminating 12-hour shifts, for example, would help reduce overtime costs.

“It’s pretty easy to look at your detachment headcount and calculate salaries/benefits,” Reid wrote. “If you’re paying for the people you’ve got at your detachment, you are paying the full cost of 85 per cent of the cost structure. Why throw out the whole system when we only need to find a way to properly allocate 15 per cent?”

Reid noted that Naqvi agreed if the Liberals formed the next government, he would have a face-to-face meeting with officials.

“He sounds like a very genuine man and I think his word is good,” she wrote. “Whether he gets the support from his caucus is another matter and that will only matter depending on the outcome of the election.”

Prior to the dissolution of the legislature May 2, it had been anticipated the new model, to be enacted in 2015, would be adopted as soon as June.

Because it is a regulatory change, the model does not pass through the floor of Queen’s Park for approval, but is rather enacted by the ministry.
When the legislature is dissolved, cabinet minsters continue to act as head of their ministries until a new government is formed.

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