LITTLE CURRENT—Ontario municipalities will not have to face the significant increase in policing costs that had alarmed municipalities until a substantial portion of the costs were alleviated by the province earlier this year. The province, which is reviewing Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) billing costs to municipalities, will be informing them as to how the impact in costs on municipalities will be mitigated by the province.
“I represent Manitoulin Island on the FONOM (Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities) board,” said Al MacNevin, mayor of the Town of Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands (NEMI) last week. He explained that at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) annual conference held last week in Ottawa, “We had a delegation meeting with Solicitor General Michael Kerzner on the issue around police billing costs.”
“I was there on behalf of FONOM to ask the minister for more reliable funding when adjustments are made in the OPP billing to municipalities,” continued Mayor MacNevin. “We (municipalities) were all taken aback when we faced an increase of 17 percent on average (with some being higher) on municipalities earlier this year. Some municipalities were forced to raise their budgets significantly.”
FONOM “is asking the province for ongoing, reliable top-up funding when municipalities are faced with increasing policing costs,” said Mayor MacNevin. “We had a good conversation with Minister Kerzner,” he said, “fortunately extra funding was provided to municipalities to offset the huge increases. It was not clear if we would be compensated again this year.”
“The minister indicated the province is reviewing the billing process, and that the province realizes they can’t surprise municipalities by unloading these proposed costs onto municipalities,” continued Mayor MacNevin. “In our case (NEMI) we made out a little better after receiving the compensation support from the province.”
“The OPP billing form is being reviewed, and we are told municipalities will be informed by the end of the year what this will mean, and what they are going to do to mitigate the impact to municipalities,” said Mayor MacNevin. “The minister was very supportive that we will not have to go through this again.”