Province caps OPP cost increases for 2026 at 11 per cent

[Michael Jack]

Change comes after 2025 saw large increases for OPP costs

Northwestern Ontario municipalities are getting some relief from rising Ontario Provincial Police costs for 2026.

The province recently announced any increases to costs for municipalities with OPP coverage will be capped at 11 per cent next year, along with changes to how discounts are calculated.

The changes come after municipalities in northwestern Ontario raised the alarm last fall over major increases to OPP costs for 2025 when compared to 2024 (for example, Red Lake saw an increase of 22 per cent, Marathon 23 per cent, and Pickle Lake 315 per cent).

In a letter sent to mayors and CAOs of OPP-policed municipalities in September, Ontario Solicitor General Michael Kerzner wrote that his ministry had done a review of the OPP's "cost recovery model," and amended the Community Safety and Policing Act as a result.

In addition to the 11 per cent cap on any increases for 2026 compared to 2025, the ministry is also lowering the threshold municipalities will need to meet to receive a discount.

"The discount table within the amended billing regulation uses a statistical measure called a standard deviation to identify municipalities with more frequent or complex calls for service activity per property compared to the provincial average," OPP spokesperson Gosia Puzio said in an email to CBC News. "This ratio reflects how many weighted calls for service hours occur in relation to the number of properties in a municipality. "

Under the old system, Puzio said, a municipality would need to exceed five standard deviations above the provincial average to qualify for a discount. That has now been lowered to three standard deviations.

"The adjustment to the threshold specifically supports municipalities that experience higher policing costs often linked to socioeconomic challenges and complex calls for service," the email states.

Rick Dumas, mayor of Marathon, said an 11 per cent increase still amounts to about an $80,000 increase in OPP costs for the town in 2026.

"If the police get called to many, many locations or many situations within the municipality, those are calls for service," he said. "You can't really control that. You can educate the public as best you can, but if they're calling 911 or the police services, the service will go to the residence or the situation or to the scene, and identify the problem and then record that as appropriate call for service."

"So those are reflective of how you will, or not, be billed with the potential having a discount at year end. So that's going to be interesting to see how that all works out for 2026."

Dumas said that an increase of 11 per cent would mean about a 1.5 per cent tax increase for a small northern community like Marathon.

"Anytime you have an impact of like that going across the board, you're trying to replace your capital infrastructure, those are huge impacts," he said. "We have to manage our operations just like everything else, and of course that all gets relayed back down to the consumer (homeowners and businesses)."

"Policing, fire, recreation, roadworks, public works, water, sewer, all those various things are a cost," he said. "And as time goes by, wages go up, cost of fuel goes up, insurance goes up, all those outside factors come into impact."

The 2025 increase, meanwhile, came because of increases in OPP officer compensation, and the province did provide some funding back, Dumas said.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder- ... -9.6976365