Duane Hicks
Police services costs are escalating in Ontario, and town council is calling on the province to take immediate measures to alleviate the most recent pay increase of 8.5 percent that will take effect next year.
Council passed a resolution at its regular meeting Monday night, which will be sent on to the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association for its support at the regional level.
Mayor Roy Avis said policing costs in Ontario have increased substantially over the past 20 years—in some instances by more than 67.5 percent.
The province recently reached a negotiated settlement with the Ontario Provincial Police that will have OPP personnel receive a pay increase of 8.5 percent as of Jan. 1, 2014.
Mayor Avis noted the level of policing Ontario municipalities must provide is set by the province, but costs keep going up at a time when the economy in many Northwestern Ontario municipalities have been “devastated” by recent mill closures in the forest industry.
They also face substantial reductions in taxable assessment with respect to these mills—in some cases retroactively.
In order to mitigate the impact of rising policing costs, some municipalities are reducing their complement of uniformed officers “to the point where the minimum delivery level of police services as mandated by the province is just being met,” the mayor said.
The 8.5 percent increase—factored in with other fiscal restraints and challenges facing municipalities—only will hurt municipalities’ abilities to provide services to taxpayers.
As such, the town is calling on the province to help pay for the future hike in policing costs.
Clerk Glenn Treftlin noted that in the period of time since Fort Frances switched from a municipal police force to the OPP, the police services’ component of the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund (OMPF) the town receives from the province has increased.
But the spread between what actually is received under the OMPF funding and the amount that goes out to cover policing costs “has expanded astronomically,” he added.
Treftlin reminded council that starting this year, OMPF funding is going to be reduced for municipalities due to the uploading of various social services programs.
“We didn’t see any of the money from the uploads and now we’re paying extra for policing, so we got hit twice,” Mayor Avis remarked.
