Wawa wants OPP cost cuts now

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?

Wawa wants OPP cost cuts now

Postby Thomas » Sat Aug 16, 2014 5:56 am

An Algoma community will pay less for Ontario Provincial Police services, but not soon enough for its mayor.

Yasir Naqvi, minister of community safety and correctional services, announced a new billing model for municipalities using the OPP Thursday. Starting Jan.1, 2015 the cost will be gradually adjusted to an average $355 per property across all Ontario by 2020.

Wawa Mayor Linda Nowicki said her communitys' households have been paying $850 per year. Decreasing over five years is not quick enough for a community that is struggling, she said.

“It will be a benefit for our community, but those benefits will be delayed,” Nowicki told The Sault Star Thursday. “Which means Wawa will continue to overpay, as far as I'm concerned, for our police services for the next five years again.”

The ministry and the OPP said the fairest way to increase and decrease the costs will be to phase them in over five years.

“With annual increases that occur as a result of the new billing model capped at $40 per property, and decreases will start at $18 in year one, increasing to $96 over a period of five years in the last year,” Naqvi said. “This will provide stability and predictability for both taxpayers and municipalities.”

Wawa decided to cut a municipal police force for the OPP in 2011 saving taxpayers money, but not as much as other communities.

“We're still at the top of the scale, we always have been,” Nowicki said of the OPP. “We can certainly use the decrease immediately.”

Under the new model, 207 municipalities across Ontario will see an increased cost, while 115 will see a decrease. The model will also charge per property instead of per household, making commercial properties responsible for costs as well.

The new billing model splits the cost of policing 60% for base services and 40% for calls for service. Base services, estimated to be $203 per property, includes crime prevention, administrative duties, proactive policing, and officer training. Calls for service, will vary between communities.

Naqvi said the OPP's old model was created in 1998 and was never updated in 17 years. As a result, the model created a cost-recovery system that resulted in some communities paying less then $10 per year and others paying more than $800 per year.

“As well the billing process is complex, difficult to administer, and does not provide municipalities with the information they need to have some control over policing costs,” Naqvi said. “That was not far to those households and was not far to the municipalities.”

Changes were also recommended in the 2012 Auditor General's report.

“The Auditor General said these widely varying costs were not fair and that the model needed to be changed,” Naqvi said. “So we listened and working with municipalities, and the OPP, we are acting.”

Naqvi added the OPP will be getting their estimates of costs out to municipalities by the fall so communities can organize their 2015 budgets.

The ministry said the model will also provide transparency for municipalities, providing monthly reports. Progressive Conservative community safety critic Rick Nicholls criticizes the model for having “left out crucial details on how much this new model will actually cost municipalities.”

“The government has provided an average per house price for policing,” he said in a release. “That doesn’t tell municipalities what police services will cost in Cochrane versus what they will cost in Leamington.”


ANNUAL COST OF POLICING

Throughout Ontario: $3.8 billion

Cost of OPP policing: $1 billion

Cost of OPP policing in municipalities: $360 million

Average cost of policing, per household, in Ontario cities: $700

Average cost of policing, per household, in towns policed by the OPP: $368 (though it varies greatly)


EQUALIZED BILLING

Proposed equalized billing model to take effect in 2015: $260 base cost per household for police services, plus calls for service.

Under current model:

Cost for police service varies greatly, with Cockburn Island at the low end -paying $9 a year per household and Atikokan and Kenora at the high end, paying about $1,000 each .

$9: Cockburn Island (there are some summer residences there, but no one lives there year round)

$125: Tiny Township; pop. 12,000

$134: East Ferris; pop. 4,500

$580: Tecumseh; pop. 25,000

$820: Cochrane; pop. 6,500

$1,000: Atikokan; pop. 2,600

OPP BY THE NUMBERS

6,300police officers

2,300 civilian employees

77 detachments (150 locations within them)

87 satellite stations

5 regional headquarters

5 communication centres with 911 call takers and dispatchers


EXPENSES

In 2011/2012: OPP operating expenses totalled $979 million

Staffing cost was 87%of that

Municipalities reimbursed $362 million of the total


OPP BY THE NUMBERS

6,300police officers

2,300 civilian employees

77 detachments (150 locations within them)

87 satellite stations

5 regional headquarters

5 communication centres with 911 call takers and dispatchers


EXPENSES

In 2011/2012: OPP operating expenses totalled $979 million

Staffing cost was 87%of that

Municipalities reimbursed $362 million of the total



Towns that have gone OPP in the past 15 years

30 towns

Kenora 2009

Red Rock 2000

Atikokan -2005

Terrace Bay -2000

Wawa -2011

Temiskaming Shores -2007

Elliot Lake -2003

South Bruce Grey -2003

Meaford Thornbury -2002

Harriston -1999

Palmerston -1999

Listowel -1999

Goderich -1998

Mitchell -1998

Ingersoll -2002

Tillsonburg -2000

Point Edward -1999

St. Clair Beach -2000

Essex -2009

Kingsville -1999

Leamington 2010

Alexandria 2000

Renfrew -2000

Carleton Place -2003

Perth -2013

Prescott -2004

Deseronto -2001

Quente West -2003

Fergus -1999

Paris -2000

Haldimand Norfolk -1998



OPP Municipal Policing

Contracts to service 324 municipalities and assist 19

First Nations on cost recovery basis.

Support as requested for 53 municipalities and nine aboriginal police forces

http://www.saultstar.com/2014/08/14/waw ... t-cuts-now

http://www.northernontariodiscussionboa ... ollTo=6071
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