KENORA — The mayor and council in Kenora now know more about what it could cost if the city were to return to a municipal police service.
Consultants with MNP presented at Kenora council’s meeting on Feb. 10 and took questions from those around the table. The consultants’ report says it would cost roughly twice as much each year to run a municipal force, compared to what Kenora is currently spending on having the OPP do frontline policing.
Coun. Bob Bernie has been behind efforts to reconsider Kenora using the OPP and, instead examining the re-establishment of a city police service. The Kenora Police Service was disbanded in 2008 over then-concerns of the rising costs of maintaining it.
Currently, Thunder Bay is the only Northwestern Ontario municipality that has its own police service.
The report to council shows net “high-level operating costs” between $13.2 million and $15.9 million annually for a local force, depending on whether the city establishes a “base model” or an “enhanced model” of policing — the difference is effectively how many staff and other resources are included in the proposed service’s organizational structure.
MNP senior manager Nathan Maertins said the base model would still be enough to ensure standards necessary under provincial legislation; an “enhanced” service, he said, would allow the force to be more “proactive.”
In either case, staffing costs, including things like salary, benefits and overtime, account for the majority of those figures. The consultants said a Kenora-based police service could operate with 46 officers. Currently, 82 OPP officers work out of the Kenora detachment, council heard, however that number is not only for Kenora itself, but also serves a sizable part of the region outside the city.
The report shows that Kenora paid $7.4 million in 2024 for the OPP, and is projected to fork out $7.1 million in 2025 and $7.8 million in 2026.
Establishing a municipal service would also come with several years of “transition costs,” over a projected five years, the report says, including still paying for OPP service while the city-run force is set up.
On the capital side alone, that ranges from a total of $19.3 million to $21.8 million spread over those five years and includes things like building and furnishing a new headquarters, purchasing vehicles and equipment as well as other startup costs.
A new building would account for a majority of those capital costs, the report said.
Bernie, who used to work for both the former Kenora Police Service and the OPP, said during the discussion that the city could be “creative” in that respect, including retrofitting an existing building. He also said officers would likely be hired on in phases, meaning there isn’t a huge need for a brand-new headquarters right off the bat.
“When you hire your chief, he’s not expected to go into a brand-new building, he’ll work out of an administrative building somewhere, perhaps city hall,” he said. “And your officers that you hire will actually work in the building of the police service of jurisdiction.”
“It doesn’t have to be rolled in immediately.”
Mayor Andrew Poirier said the cost of the building was “the least of my concerns,” when he read the report. “That’s an asset and I can totally justify an asset that’s going to last 50 years,” he said.
“It was more on having parallel forces and, we can’t even afford 7.8 million (dollars for the OPP), and now we’re going to be up here (in operating costs) and plus we’re going to add an additional cost through transition.”
A municipal police service with oversight from a local police service board would provide for Kenora-based authority in terms of setting policing priorities, budgeting and other control over the service.
“They (would) have absolute control, which we don’t have now,” Bernie said during the meeting. “So, I just wanted to make that clear. And it’s the sole responsibility of the board to hire the chief of police.”
At a previous council meeting, Bernie said returning to municipal policing is part of Kenora “controlling our own destiny.”
He said later in the Feb. 10 session that he will likely bring a motion to council at a future date to “look at” a transition plan.
“Perhaps when I bring that resolution, we can have a more fulsome conversation,” he said about the future of policing in Kenora. “It’s a big issue, a huge issue, and I’d like to … put it before council formally.”
“And I respect whatever the decision is.”
