The province of Ontario is promising once again to cap the cost of policing for municipalities using the services of the Ontario Provincial Police.
In a letter to municipal heads of council copied on this week’s Petawawa council agenda, Solicitor General Michael Kerzner says the province will “limit increases in OPP policing costs for municipalities in 2027.”
Like 2026, Kerzner says the province will cap increases in OPP costs to 11 per cent for 2027.
“This is a time-limited measure for the 2027 OPP billing cycle, intended to provide municipalities with cost certainty to support local budget planning,” he says.
Kerzner says the OPP is preparing its 2027 billing statements, which municipalities should receive this fall.
“We value the important partnership between the province, municipalities and the OPP in keeping Ontario communities safe.
“We also recognize the importance of ensuring policing costs are sustainable and predictable for municipalities, and we will continue working with our municipal partners on these shared priorities.”
The cap has had a significant impact on the cost of policing for some local municipalities.
In Petawawa, for example, the OPP’s annual billing statement showed the town should have paid just over $2.3 million for its services in 2026, an increase of more than $500,000 over 2025.
With the province’s cap in place, Petawawa’s actual billing was held to $2 million, a “savings” of $305,658.
In Laurentian Hills, the town will pay $460,476 for the services of the OPP this year, up from $414,843 in 2025.
But the increase could have been worse. According to Laurentian Hills’ billing statement, the town’s full costing for 2026 should have been $536,196.
With the cap in place, Laurentian Hills was hit with an increase of “only” $45,633 instead, a “savings” of $75,720.
If both municipalities hit the 11 per cent cap for 2027, that means their OPP billing would increase to $2.22 million for Petawawa and $511,128 for Laurentian Hills.
Laurentian Hills passed a motion earlier this summer calling on the province to review the current OPP billing model and give “increased financial assistance” to small and rural municipalities experiencing “significant policing cost increases.”
Moved by Councillor John Hoyle and seconded by Deputy Mayor Brenda Blimkie, the motion notes that small municipalities across Ontario already face “significant financial pressures resulting from escalating costs associated with infrastructure renewal, maintenance, and replacement, including roads, bridges, water and wastewater systems, and other essential municipal assets.”
At the same time, municipalities are required to maintain balanced budgets and have “limited revenue-generating tools, relying primarily on property taxation to fund municipal services.”
“Rising OPP costs place additional strain on municipal taxpayers and reduce the ability of municipalities to invest in critical infrastructure and other essential community services,” it says.
“Community safety is a shared responsibility and the province of Ontario has an interest in ensuring equitable and sustainable policing services across rural Ontario.”
Meanwhile, municipalities with their own police services have asked the province to provide “fairness” when it comes to support for the OPP.
Both the city of Sarnia and the town of LaSalle say the province needs to work with all municipalities to “develop a fair, transparent, and sustainable provincial funding framework that applies equally to all police services in Ontario.”
In a letter to the province copied to Deep River council late last year, LaSalle Mayor Crystal Meloche said that municipalities with their own police services “face the same financial pressures and in many cases, even greater ones” than municipalities policed by the OPP.
Meloche said the province’s support for OPP policing has created a “two-tier system.”
“OPP-policed municipalities continue to receive automatic provincial cost relief, while municipally policed communities are left to shoulder the full impact of inflation, collective bargaining, and new legislative mandates under the Community Safety and Policing Act (CSPA).”
Municipalities with their own police services “are not asking for preferential treatment, we are asking for parity,” Meloche said.
“If the province recognizes the need to stabilize OPP-policed budgets, it is only fair and reasonable that the same level of consideration be extended to municipally policed communities facing equivalent pressures.”
Deep River Mayor Sue D’Eon made similar statements after the province announced funding for municipalities policed by the OPP back in 2024.
D’Eon said Deep River looked at moving to the OPP in 2017, but in a community-wide survey, residents expressed a strong desire to retain community policing.
“We are a small urban municipality and community policing is very important to our residents. They value our municipal police service and they pay the full cost of it.”
But D’Eon noted Deep River residents also pay a portion of OPP policing costs through their provincial taxes.
“Having the province provide a further 10 per cent subsidy for the 2025 costs of policing only to OPP served communities and exclude small communities like ours with their own police service is a kick in the teeth,” she said.
“It’s not fair and it’s not sustainable.”
