Duane Hicks
Fort Frances is getting more information on the new billing model for OPP services, which should realize big cost-savings for the town starting in 2015.
Detachment commander Insp. Steve Shouldice told council Monday night that the new model will have a base rate of $260 per household, plus calls for service.
The base rate accounts for 73 percent of the cost of policing while the remaining 27 percent will be based on calls for service (both volume of calls and types of calls).
There will be 96 different types of calls compared to 400-plus used now.
The costing of calls for service isn’t known at this time, but Insp. Shouldice said it will be based on the type of call.
Each type of call will have a time-weighted value, he added. For example, a sexual assault investigation takes more time than a vandalism incident.
“The goal behind [the new billing model] is to reduce the cost of policing in some municipalities that are paying higher costs than others, and to increase the costs of some of the municipalities paying less,” noted Insp. Shouldice.
Municipalities currently paying more than $400 for policing, such as Fort Frances and Atikokan, are expected to see lower policing costs.
Smaller communities such as Lake of the Woods Township, which currently pays $61 per household for policing, will pay much more.
Mayor Roy Avis is hopeful Fort Frances will see a reduction in how much it pays for policing each year.
“From what I heard this evening [Monday], we’re going to see a savings in our policing costs,” he noted.
“It sounded very good,” he added. “I just hope the government carries through with that.
“As I see it now, we’re paying close to $700 per household and it’s going to be going down substantially,” Mayor Avis continued.
“We’ve been paying the lion’s share,” he stressed. “Now it’s going to be spread out through all the province, throughout all the municipalities.
The mayor said everybody will be paying the same base rate, with calls for service being extra.
Mayor Avis also noted that once the new billing structure is in place, residents will have to “think before you call because every time you pick up that phone, it’s going to cost us money.”
While the base cost will be undeniably lower than what the town pays right now, the true extent of savings won’t be known until it is known how much the various calls for service will cost.
Other highlights of Insp. Shouldice’s report included:
•the Rainy River District Community Policing Committee is preparing to launch a website in March to celebrate community policing initiatives, provide communities access to resources, and help evaluate and measure local initiatives;
•Rainy River District saw more than a 1,000 fewer calls for service in 2013 versus 2012 (6,788 compared to 7,880); and
•local OPP continue to have better clearance rates than the rest of the province and Canada (the local detachment had a 92.6 percent clearance rate for violent crimes and 32.7 percent clearance rate for property crime).
The provincial average is 72 percent for violent crimes and 24 percent for property crimes while the national average is 72 percent and 23 percent, respectively.
