Province must hold the line on police pay

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?

Province must hold the line on police pay

Postby Thomas » Sat Aug 30, 2014 12:38 pm

Soaring policing costs are turning into a political hot potato.

In a column last week, I reported how the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP) was becoming chippy with the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) over complaints that policing costs are becoming unsustainable for small towns and municipalities.

With police salaries soaring every year, homeowners are increasingly under pressure as their property taxes rise.

While the police chiefs are concerned about the quality of policing, one point they want to make is that they’re not responsible for negotiating the lucrative contracts that now allow a three-year OPP constable to make $92,000 a year.

“The general public makes the assumption that the chiefs are responsible for those collective agreements — and they’re not,” OACP executive director Ron Bain said in a recent phone interview.

“It’s the politicians who are responsible for negotiating and ultimately deciding on it, not the chiefs,” he said.

Public safety minister Yasir Naqvi released a new funding model recently in response to a 2012 report by the provincial auditor that the current system lacks transparency.

The new model will break down OPP into two parts: 60% will cover basic services with an average cost to a property owner of $203 a year, and the remaining 40% will be based on the number and nature of police calls.

Transition to the new model will be phased in over five years for both cost increases and decreases to municipalities.

There will be a $40-per-property cap on increases each year for those with an increase.

Decreases will be spread over the five years.

AMO anticipates that the majority of municipal OPP bill increases are expected to be between $200 to $400 per property, based on 2015 estimates.

Bain says it’s time to look at another way of funding police.

“Policing is much more than just something that should be based on the residential tax base,” he said. “Part of our message is there’s a broken funding model for all emergency services, in this case policing.”

Bain says cops are increasingly being asked to deliver services, such as mental health and social services, that aren’t really policing.

“I think there are many issues that are falling to the police to respond to that shouldn’t be deemed to be core policing.

“Police officers are becoming the social-services net when there are cuts to other people’s budgets,” he said. “When people get themselves into difficulty, they call 911 — and who is it that’s responding?” he asked.

Bain, a former deputy chief in Peel, says it’s easy to identify those things that cops shouldn’t be doing, but not so easy to get other agencies to do them.

“The real challenge is to try and get agreements with the agency or the ministry that should be doing those things, but they’re facing their own cuts, and they’re not prepared to take those things on,” he said.

Part of the problem is soaring police salaries and the so-called “leapfrog,” clause in the OPP contract that guarantees they are the highest paid force in the province. Other services follow suit. That means an OPP officer with three years on the job now makes $92,000, with a healthy pension.

The bottom line is there’s only one taxpayer. It doesn’t matter if we pay for police from property taxes or from income taxes, one way or another we’re footing the bill.

Looking for different ways to deliver services is a good idea. But holding the line on pay increases is the only way to ensure sustainability and affordability of policing in this province.

christina.blizzard@sunmedia.ca

http://www.lfpress.com/2014/08/29/blizz ... police-pay

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/08/28/ho ... affordable
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