The Ford government has promised to pitch tens of millions of dollars to help small and rural municipalities absorb the rising cost of provincial policing, which was threatening to trigger record property tax increases in some places.
On Friday, Solicitor General Michael Kerzner announced $77 million for towns and cities to help with OPP costs, driven in part by a record new union agreement making their officers the highest paid in the province.
“The financial relief we are proposing will help municipal leaders balance their budgets and invest in their communities while ensuring no change to the policing provided by the OPP that keeps families and businesses safe,” Kerzner said in a statement.
The OPP provides policing to the majority of Ontario’s municipalities, with contracts to serve 330 communities that don’t have their own police forces.
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A new four-year deal signed between the OPP and its union in the summer is a major reason costs are increasing next year.
It spans from 2023 to 2026 and includes retroactive raises of 4.75 per cent for the first year and 4.5 per cent for the second, as well as 2.75-per cent raises for the final two years.
Salaries account for roughly 90 per cent of the OPP’s municipal policies costs.
The costs shocked small municipalities which said they simply couldn’t afford to take on the new police bill, predicting enormous property tax increases for local residents.
In Collingwood, for example, the OPP bill rose by $1.94 million, an increase of roughly 37 per cent. The Napanee mayor said costs were set to increase 23 per cent in his community.
In Napanee, the mayor said the average cost for policing to each homeowner in 2025 would have been $399, before the province agreed to step in.
Mayor Robin Martin, president of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, welcomed the government’s decision to help subsidize the cost of policing next year.
“Without the provincial action, the rise in OPP costs would have significantly impacted small, rural, and northern communities serviced by the OPP,” she said in a statement.
“Municipal fiscal sustainability is under pressure across Ontario, and municipalities struggle to balance their budgets. This proposition is an important recognition of this challenge and will help support quality of life for residents across the province.”
The government has also promised to look at “options for reviewing” how the OPP currently bills small and rural communities.
–with files from The Canadian Press and Global News’ Aaron D’Andrea