The cost of protection

Policing costs up $300,000 over 2010 budget

The rising cost of the County's OPP contract

One of the ruder surprises in what is shaping up to be a painful budget for local taxpayers belongs to the police services board. Just five years ago the County paid about $3.7 million to the OPP for their services in the County. This year the cost of this service is expected to rise to more than $4.7 million—a $1 million or 27 per cent increase in just a few years.

This is before the announcement this week that the McGuinty government has agreed to a five per cent wage increase to the OPP along with a promise that they will be the highest paid police officers in the province for the next three years.

The ballooning budget has some asking what is driving these increases and has crime in the County really ballooned to justify a rapid rise in costs to keep the place safe? Robert Quaiff was elected as councillor last October, but he has been sitting as a member of the police services board for more than a decade.

“I’ve been on the board since 2002, I can recall when policing costs were around $2 million per year,” said Quaiff. “Now we are more than double that. Each time the contract came up for renewal, the OPP has built a business case to expand the numbers of officers.”

Currently the OPP has 32 paid officers in Picton plus nine more duty officers, paid by the province, who work out of the Prince Edward detachment. These nine officers, however, can be seconded at any time to work across Ontario.

Quaiff says the OPP increases involve a variety of factors including communications and detachment costs, but the biggest impact on costs is increased wages. Council has no involvement in the negotiation of wage settlements. Rather the province negotiates on behalf of the municipalities.

One particularly horrifying murder investigation in Ameliasburgh last year also drove increased overtime costs to an atypical extreme.

The province awarded three per cent annual increases over the past three years. Last week the McGuinty government awarded the OPP a five per cent increase in year one and zero increase in years two and three—but with the proviso that if any other Ontario police service pays its officers more, the OPP will top up their officers’ pay packet.

It is a worrisome precedent for council as it tries to hold the line on costs and taxes.

We are trying to persuade our staff and our departments to hold the line on costs,” said Mayor Peter Mertens. “This kind of increase to the OPP means we have to ask them to dig even deeper to make up the difference. That isn’t fair or reasonable.”

Mertens notes that the OPP is seeking a $300,000 increase over last year’s budget.

“This is a significant increase for the size of our budget. This was the key discussion among mayors at the Eastern Ontario Wardens Caucus last week. This is a concern across the province.”

Councillor Quaiff was more direct in his criticism.

“My opinion is that McGuinty is doing his best not to get re-elected,” said Quaff. “They said they would hold the line on public sector wage increases but the OPP walked out with a five per cent wage increase.

“The OPP may be pricing itself out of the business.”

Quaiff says it may be time to begin looking at alternatives to the OPP for policing services in the County or perhaps augmenting a much smaller force with neighbouring police services.

“Consider the time it takes to dispatch an officer to Rednersville Road from Picton compared with Belleville or Quinte West. Or Consecon or Carrying Place,” said Quaiff. “When you look at the proximity of Quinte West, Belleville and Deseronto—maybe it’s time we began looking at joint services. We already partner up with the Belleville force on joint campaigns including seatbelt checks. If we can work together like that perhaps we don’t need as many officers.”

Any change won’t happen soon, however. The County is in the first year of a multiyear agreement with the OPP. “They’ve (the OPP) put us in the position of having to look for other options,” said Quaiff.