Solicitor General promises 11% fee cap, but communities remain concerned
KAGAWONG—Billings Township council members are concerned with what appears to be an increase in municipal requisitions with the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) cost recovery model.
“It looks as if a cap has been set for an increase of no more than 11 percent for next year, but what will it be the year after that and for the next five years?” questioned Billings Mayor Bryan Barker at a council meeting October 7. “It certainly seems that there will be a big increase again in policing costs to municipalities.”
Councillor Ian Anderson said, “What I read in the letter (from the solicitor general to council) is that there is a small level of hope that the policing costs would remain at the same level next year.” (Last year, the province provided over $77 million to offset OPP cost increases.)
One of the criteria for lower police cost levels, “is based on calls for service; if an officer is in Meldrum Bay and it takes 45 minutes to get from there to Billings, it could be an expensive fee,” stated Councillor David Hillyard.
Mayor Barker explained there will be a breakdown of what it costs (municipalities) per call responded to by the OPP. “It’s the volume of calls that leads to the increases,” he said, in terms of the number of calls for the OPP it has on a yearly basis.
The Honourable Michael S. Kerzner, Ontario Solicitor General, in a letter dated September 26 to heads of council and chief administrative officers of OPP-policed municipalities wrote, “The Ministry of the Solicitor General has undertaken a review of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) cost recovery model. I would like to extend my gratitude for your participation and input into this process.”
“I am writing to inform you that because of the review, regulatory amendments have been made to Ontario Regulation 413/23: Amount Payable by municipalities for Policing from Ontario Provincial Police under the Community Safety and Policing Act, 2019. These amendments are in effect and will inform the 2026 annual billing statement to be issued shortly.”
“Firstly, an 11 percent cap is established on the increase in policing costs owed by municipalities for the 2026 calendar year when compared to 2025, excluding the costs related to any service enhancements,” wrote the solicitor general.
“Secondly, a new discounts table will be established in regulation and will apply to the 2026 billing year and going forward. This new discount table introduces a lower eligibility threshold to receive a discount. Municipalities will now receive calls for service and overtime discounts when they are three or more standard deviations from the average calls for service weighted time to property count ratio, rather than the current regulatory threshold of five standard deviations.”
“The amendments have been approved by cabinet and have been filed with the registrar of regulations. They will be accessed publicly online through the e-Laws page and will be available here within the next few business days,” the solicitor general continued.
“The preparation of 2026 annual billing statements is underway, and statements are targeted for release in November 2025,” the minister noted. “As we undertook this review, we heard loud and clear that greater clarity, predictability and stability in the OPP cost recovery model, and associated billing statements, is critical to municipalities as annual budget processes are undertaken. These amendments were contemplated, and ultimately decided upon, based on those concerns and the direct feedback that we heard from OPP policed municipalities.”
“If council is interested, we could request an OPP delegation to come to a future council meeting to provide an explanation of the costing model,” suggested Mayor Barker. Council was in favour of making this request.
Mayor Barker told The Expositor after the meeting, “last year when the police contracts were settled, there was at least a proposed 20 percent increase in billing to the municipalities. This was offset when the province gave Ontario municipalities partnership funding, so we (Billings) didn’t take the cost hit that had been projected.”
“Now it appears that municipalities will need to compensate for last years billing, along with an increase this year of no more than 11 percent,” said Mayor Barker. Billings township did put some money away in its budget to provide for an increase in police billing costs, but he said the township may be looking at a big increase in its policing costs in the next year.
