The Municipality of Brockton will get some support with rising costs of court security.
Bruce County council has agreed to cover half the remaining costs related to security and prisoner transfer at the Walkerton court, once provincial grant funding has been received.
The motion resembles recent agreements reached by Grey and Huron County to help cover costs not met by provincial funding, for the Owen Sound and Goderich courthouses respectively. Grey and Huron are budgeting approximately $275,000 and $185,000 respectively for 2025.
Municipality of Brockton Mayor Chris Peabody says this isn't a new issue that the province downloaded, but rather a failure to increase funding relative to costs.
"Historically, it was always the municipality that covered the court cost," he told council. "Then in 2012, the Mayor of Owen Sound...she waged quite a campaign to get it partially funded through a Court Security Grant. At that time, it looked like things would be fine, but the grant didn't get any bigger, so it didn't keep up with policing costs."
Last year Brockton spent over $150,000 on court security. Staff estimate that expense will come out to around $250,000 this year, due to skyrocketing OPP costs.
Warden Luke Charbonneau said ultimately the goal was to have the province cover all of the costs.
"We ought to continue to include this in our lobbying efforts, our government relations effort, continue to push to see the province fund this fully," he said. "It seems like an obvious area of provincial responsibility to operate the courts, so they ought to be the ones funding it. I know the County along with all of our lower tiers will continue to push for that."
The estimated $125,000 expense to Bruce County will be funded through the Tax Stabilization Reserve for 2025.
The future funding will be discussed for the 2026 budget.