The Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities wants Ontario to take back OPP costing.
President Danny Whalen says the lobby group made the request to the provincial government earlier in the year.
The call for the province to once again assume costing for Ontario Provincial Police rather than have municipalities pay from local property taxes is the result of a new four-year collective agreement that awards officers and civilian staff a 14.75 per cent increase between January 2023 and January 2026.
Mattawa’s council encountered some serious sticker shock for next year’s OPP service – an increase of 21 per cent. That translates to an additional $113,923 for policing within the municipality, a rise Mattawa’s interim CAO Paul Laperriere called “ludicrous.”
For 2024, the police budget was earmarked for $531,047. Next year, that number is $644,970.
See: ‘Ludicrous,’ Mattawa’s CAO says of OPP service increase
Many front-line constables and sergeants will also receive an extra three per cent added to their salaries.
In South River, the salary bump combined with an increase in calls for service costs is resulting in a $68,000 increase in policing costs this year. The clerk-administrator says that works out to roughly a five per cent hike to the 2025 municipal budget and every one per cent adds $14,627.
The Municipality of Tweed started the ball rolling and many Ontario municipalities followed Tweed’s lead.
Whalen says FONOM is asking its member communities to send information on how the new OPP contract impacts their budgets.
The northern communities have been sending FONOM that information. Whelen says “all municipalities are seeing a significant increase.”
Whalen, the mayor of Temiskaming Shores, said his municipality is also taking a hit, seeing an increase of about $225,000 to its municipal budget due to the new OPP contract.
The Ontario government has increased the allocations of the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund to many municipalities, which can be used to help offset the impact, he added.
However, Whalen points out this also means municipalities can’t use the OMPF increase to fund other services.
Whalen says regardless of the OPP contract, the officers live in the communities they serve, so their wages are spent locally.
The current OPP method of calculating costs per service to each municipality “must be astronomical,” he said.
Whalen says the municipal billing is based on varying factors, including caseload, which he believes is a significant reason for the province to take back responsibility.
“They must spend enormous amounts of money figuring out what each little township and town is responsible for as far as their overall bill,” Whalen said.
Whalen said a flaw with the current billing model is based on the nature of who commits crimes.
When the OPP determines the cost per service, the calculation doesn’t take into account if that call was generated by a local person committing a crime or someone from another community, he said.
“So, if a young lad from South River comes up to Temiskaming Shores, commits a crime, and then goes back home, Temiskaming Shores residents pay for that,” he said. “It would really simplify things if they went back to the old way before municipalities started to pay.”
“If the province assumes OPP costing, the OPP doesn’t have to calculate the cost per service.”
He adds this also frees up time for municipal staff who now have to factor policing costs into their local budgets.
As more municipalities respond to FONOM’s request, Whalen believes the lobby group will have enough data to develop a strategy it can present at the Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) conference in Toronto in January.
“We’re not just standing up and saying the province should pay for policing,” he said.
“If you just whine and complain, the government gets that all day long. But if we go in and say here’s the issue, here’s the problem it’s creating, and here’s what we see as a solution and we’ll work with you, we believe we can be successful.
“FONOM has been quite successful with this type of approach over the years. We’re not here just to complain.”
Rocco Frangione is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter with Almaguin News. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
