Equity or diversion?

Municipalities respond to proposed new OPP funding scheme

Are the costs out of line? Yes. But this was the best of the models being proposed,” said Mayor Peter Mertens, outlining a proposal prepared by the Association of Ontario Municipalities (AMO) in regard to policing costs.

Rising police services costs, and the resulting backlash from municipalities and residents struggling to pay these bills, prompted the OPP to propose a new funding model last year.

The model the OPP offered wouldn’t lower policing costs, but will allocate costs more evenly across municipalities. In doing so, the OPP may have been hoping to deflect criticism of a 8.55 per cent wage increase implemented in January.

There is, however, a wide disparity between policing costs among the 324 municipalities across the province. The town of Cochrane, for example pays about $860 a year per household, Prince Edward County pays about $400 per household.

Any model seeking to bring these rates closer together will mean higher costs for Prince Edward County ratepayers.

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The OPP proposal envisions 73 per cent of the total cost of policing services across the province be reduced to a per household cost (total policing costs ÷ Ontario households multiplied by the number of households in the municipality).

The balance (27 per cent) of the policing bill would be based upon calls for service in the municipality.

AMO officials argue this isn’t fair, that relatively crime-free communities would be subsidizing the policing services of more troubled communities. Nor does this proposal consider a municipality’s ability to pay. The per household rate would be the same in Consecon as it is in Goderich and Vankleek Hill.

AMO’s counter-proposal recommends that half of the base cost portion be weighted to the size of the municipality’s tax base. Richer communities would pay more; poorer municipalities would pay less.

AMO also calls on the provincial government to ease the transition to any new model with additional funding. The organization also enunciates the fact that while it may be worthwhile to address the inequity of the existing billing scheme— these measures do nothing to fix the rapidly rising cost of policing in the province.

Hillier councillor Alec Lunn asked Mayor Mertens if it wasn’t time for the County to look beyond the OPP for policing services.

Mertens explained that it was unlikely this or any municipality could escape the rising escalation of police salaries, even by contracting with another service. The OPP, for example, negotiated and received assurances that they are the highest paid police force in Ontario. That, in effect, has set the starting point for the next police services contract up for renewal.

Last year an arbitrator awarded Windsor police a 11.59 per cent wage increase over four years. Windsor police have now leapfrogged their OPP colleagues. A firstclass constable there now earns $90,300, making them the highest paid in the province. And so it goes.

North Marysburgh councillor Robert Quaiff suggested it may be time to dissolve the County’s police services board, acknowledging that it has little ability to shape policing services in this community, is powerless to define the number of officers needed, and has no input on wage negotiations.

“We can make recommendations, but in the end it is an arbitrator that makes the decision,” said Quaiff. “Some municipalities are getting away from Section 10 policing (governed by a local police services board) and moving to Section 5, where the OPP just hands us a bill at the end of the year.”

Quaiff is vice-chair of the Ontario Association of Police Services Board, which is meeting this week in Toronto. The number one topic, according to Quaiff, is the rising costs of police services in Ontario.