South River taxpayers face $68,000 hike in Ontario Provincial Police billing alone

[Michael Jack]

Small and rural communities follow Tweed’s lead and call for Ontario Government to reabsorb OPP costs.

The Village of South River may have a tougher time than usual putting its 2025 budget together.

Clerk-administrator Don McArthur says the village has received notice that by the end of 2026, OPP wages will have increased by 17.75 per cent, which includes a three per cent patrol premium for frontline constables and sergeants.

This increase is due to a new OPP collective agreement that is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2023 and expires at the end of 2026.

McArthur says the combination of the retroactive nature of the collective agreement plus an increased cost to the calls for service means South River’s policing costs are increasing by $68,000 for the 2025 budget.

McArthur says this represents an increase of about five per cent to next year’s budget and it’s an amount neither he nor town council expected.

Every one per cent increase to the budget equals $14,627.

What will ease the pain somewhat is that South River was allocated an additional $61,800 in the latest announcements of the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund (OMPF).

However, this also means the OMPF increase can’t be used elsewhere if it’s applied directly to the OPP budget line.

South River’s total OMPF allocation for 2025 is $680,500.

McArthur says municipalities don’t like to raise taxes and the 2025 budget will be a choice between additional tax increases or lowering services.

Like every other municipality in Ontario, South River has an extensive asset management plan.

McArthur says it’s almost impossible for the village to fund all its assets while also trying to juggle improving or increasing services.

He says this would be an impossible task without the OMPF.

McArthur says the municipality has been fortunate to have had very consistent OPP costing the last several years and adds the OPP provides “great service” and “lots of protection”.

“Consistency is what we look for,” he said.

But the dollar amount the just-negotiated agreement amounts to is something McArthur says “was unexpected for sure and that makes it extra challenging”.

And it’s not just South River that will face additional costs to its budget.

For example, the Town of Midland is seeing its OPP costs rise by $1 million which means an approximate four per cent increase to its budget.

McArthur says municipalities pay for services like roads, water and sewer, sidewalks and garbage collection through local property taxes.

They also contribute to their respective district of social services administration boards to cover the cost of social housing.

In contrast it’s people’s income tax that pay for social services, healthcare and education.

There was a time when income taxes to the provincial government paid the cost of OPP services before it was downloaded onto municipalities and now the service is paid through property taxes.

“The question is should the type of service be on the property tax or with the province and funded directly from them?” McArthur asked.

Making the municipalities pay for policing services through property taxes, increases the work of town councils as they account for another factor in their budget.

“The OPP cost is not negotiable,” McArthur said.

“And it’s not like we can say we want a little less OPP service. This is a fixed cost that has to be built into the 2025 budget.”

The latest contract settlement combined with the costs for calls for service has resulted in municipalities asking the Ontario Government to reassume the cost of OPP delivery to municipalities.

The town council of the Municipality of Tweed recently passed a resolution calling on the Ford government to do just that.

South River has joined the growing list of municipalities asking the provincial government to reabsorb the OPP cost and not to recover that cost through municipal property taxes.

Midland went further with its resolution to support Tweed.

Midland town council says small urban communities face insurmountable challenges to pay for both upfront investments plus the ongoing maintenance of roads, water and sewer and municipal buildings.

It added to its wish list that the Ontario government refer the current OPP billing model, which includes how cost per service is calculated, to the Auditor General.

Petawawa and the Township of Whitewater Region, which includes Cobden, have passed resolutions supporting Tweed, and Whitewater added extra language to its resolution.

Whitewater says the Ontario Government has given Toronto more than $9 billion to help with its operating deficit and repatriation of the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway and more than $530 million to Ottawa to repatriate Highway 174.

Whitewater says by comparison the annual cost to pay for the OPP is well below these numbers but OPP policing provides a greater impact to residents of small communities in Ontario.

Whitewater adds the province reabsorbing OPP costing will provide relief to the small rural municipalities for both infrastructure and operating needs while having a minimal impact on the provincial budget.

The central and southern Ontario municipalities are sending copies of its resolutions to the premier, several cabinet ministers and to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) to lobby on their behalf.

The northern Ontario municipalities are adding the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM) to their list so it also can lobby for OPP costing to be reversed.

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