KENORA - The municipalities of Kenora, Pickle Lake, and Sioux Lookout have agreed to form a coalition to address the high costs of providing police services in their respective communities.
In 2015, the Ontario Government introduced a cost formula for all municipalities using the Ontario Provincial Police to deliver local services. Since then, taxpayers in these three municipalities have paid $4 million more for policing than other communities. The money could have been invested in critical infrastructure projects such as shelter, housing, roads, bridges, and community needs.
The Ontario Provincial Police’s cost formula is based on a combination of basic charges to every municipality in Ontario. Then Ontario Provincial Police add additional charges for each municipality based on the number of calls for police services, overtime, prisoner transportation and security for jails, courthouse services, and the cost of holding people in detention cells.
“The formula is based on a cost per property, while our three municipalities serve a population 10 times the size of our tax base,” states Mayor Daniel Reynard, City of Kenora. “We are each hub for dozens of northern and remote communities and each other. Our municipalities act as regional resource centres for healthcare, pharmacy, education, legal, and transportation services for First Nations peoples living in a geographical area larger than Germany.”
The formula’s costs per property are $832 in Kenora, $934 in Sioux Lookout, and $950 in Pickle Lake. The median price for police services in Ontario is $300 per property. While Pickle Lake and Sioux Lookout receive some discounts, there is no guarantee that these will be extended.
Of all 306 municipalities served by the Ontario Provincial Police, Kenora, Pickle Lake, and Sioux Lookout represent less than one per cent of the total number of properties the Ontario Provincial Police helps, yet make up over four per cent of the total serviceable hours.
By a significant margin, the coalition municipalities have the highest policing costs of all communities that use the Ontario Provincial Police services.
“For our hub-based municipalities, the province’s OPP cost formula hasn’t worked,” said Doug Lawrance, Sioux Lookout mayor. “It is one of the most important problems we face. It’s also the easiest to solve if the provincial government is willing to work with us.”
Since the cost formula was first introduced, each of the three municipalities has repeatedly attempted to convince the provincial government that the cost formula is unfair and needs to be changed or scrapped.
Nevertheless, the Ontario government sees the cost formula as achieving various degrees because each municipality’s policing service works differently than the next. Kenora, for example, receives no discounts on police services, but Sioux Lookout receives a partial discount on its bill, while Pickle Lake gets a discount on its calls for service and overtime costs.
Pickle Lake mayor Dwight Monck suggests, “If the Government of Ontario fails to address this situation, we will have to take serious action. The ability of our property owners to pay higher taxes has reached the breaking point. If our policing costs rise, we may have to further reduce other services to the residents, businesses, and organizations who call our community’s home.”
The coalition’s goal is to work with the Government of Ontario to seek a fair solution for its municipal taxpayers and be financially sustainable. With the provincial election scheduled for June 2, the coalition members will be asking all local candidates and the three-party leaders to commit to solving this issue by the end of this year.
