Faced with double-digit hikes for policing costs, Simcoe County urges Doug Ford to hold line on OPP increases to 5%

[Michael Jack]

Simcoe County wants Ontario’s auditor general to review formula used by OPP to bill municipalities

The formula Ontario Provincial Police uses to bill municipalities needs to be scrutinized by the province’s financial watchdog to make sure it’s fair to all.

That’s the message Simcoe County’s council wants to send Premier Doug Ford and other provincial government officials, as municipalities face double-digit increases in their 2025 bills from OPP — that in turn could translate into a staggering property tax hike for residents next year.

A motion passed by council’s committee of the whole at its Nov. 12 meeting also asks the premier and solicitor general Michael Kerzner to limit OPP cost increases being faced by municipalities to five per cent — with the province picking up the difference.

The motion came at the behest of the Town of Wasaga Beach, which is looking at an increase in its OPP bill of more than 23 per cent. Mayor Brian Smith, one of the town’s two representatives at the county, said the increases OPP is telling municipalities they have to pay are not sustainable.

“Wasaga Beach had based its initial budget discussions on a five-per-cent increase from the OPP.”

More than 20 per cent, Smith said, “is just not feasible. Whether we have it one year, or every year, it’s just not doable.”

OPP has previously stated it faces higher costs next year as the result of the latest contract for front-line officers and civilian staff, and a return to pre-pandemic levels in workload, which includes court security and prisoner transportation expenses.

Midland Mayor Bill Gordon — whose municipality faces a 26-per-cent jump in its bill from OPP, or about $1 million — put forward the amendment to Smith’s motion for a review of OPP’s bill formula by Ontario’s auditor general, calling the practice of charging municipalities based on a per-call system was a “kind of voodoo … created by the province when they decided to get into the predatory practice of taking over small municipal police services with the ‘one-ring-to-rule-them-all’ mentality.”

Gordon said for the extra $1 million Midland would pay for policing in 2025, his town wouldn’t receive more services than what it currently gets from OPP.

“Our community would be happy to drain the reserves for $1 million more worth of policing … actually have police in my community, not on the perimeter, spend time doing enforcement in the community,” he said. “The bottom line is we’re not getting more for the money, and that’s the catalyst for this.”

The auditor general could provide an unbiased look at the funding model, he said, and a “sober second thought on how we arrive at the math, and how it’s basically crushing municipalities.”

Smith has previously laid the blame for the increases at the feet of OPP management, saying it failed to plan for issues such as increases in overtime and staff attrition as a result of retirements.

He emphasized the request to the province to hold the line on increases “has absolutely nothing to do” with front-line officers at local detachments, “but they face significant challenges based on the challenges faced by the organization.”

Wasaga Beach’s original request of the county, to undertake a feasibility study for its own police service, met with some resistance at the council table.

Dave Evans, Tiny Township’s mayor and county representative, called a study “putting the cart before the horse,” and said the province needs to be given the opportunity to respond to the request to limit the increases.

“I’m a little leery of moving to the first step … for a countywide police force. I think it’s going to be a lot more expensive than anybody ever thinks,” he said.

Instead, the committee referred the issue back to county staff, who will examine whether it’s worth tackling the issue of undertaking a study.

https://www.simcoe.com/news/faced-with- ... 09088.html