The Municipality of Brockton will be stuck with a huge policing bill next year unless it can push for provincial changes.
The increase in salaries for next year, as well as year-end reconciliation for 2023, has left the town with a nearly 30 per cent jump in OPP costs.
CFO Trish Serratore brought a report to council regarding the 2025 OPP Annual Billing Statement, which includes an over $750,000 increase to policing costs for next year. A reconciliation for 2023 costs showed that the municipality also underpaid by $260,000, which adds to next year's costs.
Serratore says this is an issue all municipalities are facing.
"It ranged for all municipalities anywhere from nine to 65 per cent increase, so everybody is being affected by this increase" she told council. "Their tax rate impacts are different depending on what their assessment bases are, that varies for every municipality, but it's definitely being felt across Ontario."
As it currently stands, the massive jump for policing costs alone would equate to a 6.5 per cent tax rate increase in next year's budget.
A number of issues with the current billing model were raised by council members, including Mayor Chris Peabody, who noted that municipalities that kept their own police services still benefit from OPP.
"We have a number of municipal forces around us, and if those forces need an extra OPP service such as the Search and Rescue helicopter, the SWAT team, or forensics, they don't get charged out for that," he said. "In this billing statement, we're paying for that service. So we're paying for it, but our neighbours get it for free."
Peabody said it wouldn't be feasible to consider adopting an alternative police service, due to the cost of studying alternatives and the fact that policing salaries across the province are "on track to be uniform."
Councillor Tim Elphick added a flaw of the current OPP model means they won't see a cost reduction for years and due to the renewal cycle, the earliest they could realistically make a change is 2026.
As members discussed options like seeking a delegation at January's Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) Conference, Mayor Peabody said he was focused on getting some financial relief in another area of law enforcement.
The Bruce County Warden said he is pushing for changes at the County level to help cover the costs of court security and prisoner transportation for the Walkerton Courthouse.
"I'm just really focused on that court security. The Walkerton Courthouse has a catchment area of 80,000 people. Our population is 10,000 and then we're looking at a $900,000 bill. We're 12 per cent of the population, 100 per cent of basically a million dollar bill. So that's where we've got to direct our efforts," he said.
Grey County council recently agreed to create a cost sharing agreement with Owen Sound for securing its courthouse.