The Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities continues to call on the province to help communities with the rising costs of policing.
President Dave Plourde says they’re looking the government to create a grant to help towns with the impact municipal or OPP costs have on their budgets.
“We’ve seen last year with a freeze of 11 per cent I think for police costing,” he says. “Imagine how that really affects whether it’s 11 per cent or 10 per cent or nine per cent really. It really affects all of our budgets because it is a huge cost at the end of the day.”
Last September, Ontario Solicitor General Michael Kerzner wrote to municipal leaders in communities policed by the OPP, telling them increases for this year would be capped at 11% and new discount table related to calls for service and overtime is in place.
FONOM detailed their grant request earlier this year at the Rural Association of Municipalities Conference, recommending a three-year, $100-million Northern Ontario Policing Grant be phased in.
Plourde is also the mayor of Kapuskasing, where last year’s OPP costs represented a two per cent tax increase.
He says there appears to be no exact science when it comes to tabulating the bill, and even an experienced accountant would have a hard time understanding it, adding that makes it hard for municipalities to plan because of the unknown.
**With files from Denis Puska
