The cost of securing the Walkerton court continues to be a hot button issue at Municipality of Brockton council.
The Municipality received its latest court security and prisoner transportation grant from the province. It has been allotted $528,225 to help with those costs in 2025, a nearly $150,000 increase from its 2024 grant.
Also this year, Bruce County has agreed to take on half of the cost of security and prisoner transportation not covered by the province.
Despite that, Brockton's court security costs have still increased by 20 per cent over last year.
Councillor Tim Elphick said more needs to be done.
"Quite frankly, there has to be a better way, there has to be a better formula," he said. "It cannot be borne by one single Municipality to recover these costs on their own from their ratepayers, when these facilities are being used by multiple other Municipalities across Southern Bruce and Grey County."
The Municipality has spent over $860,000 on court security and transportation in the last five years.
Mayor Chris Peabody agreed with Elphick's stance. He noted he received vague promises of reform to the court security costs from the Attorney and Solicitor Generals Office at ROMA, but clearly council needed to try new methods of advocacy.
"We're going to keep pushing, at some point maybe we just refuse to pay it? But I've said it before, it's unsustainable. It's totally unfair to Brockton and it's really unbelievable that we're stuck with this after the advocacy. Obviously the soft diplomatic approach did not work, so we're going to have to shift gears on this."
Mayor Peabody also pointed to the aging Walkerton courthouse as a reason costs were so high compared to nearby Owen Sound and Goderich.
"The bill is so high because that courthouse is decrepit. It's old and the layout increases the security cost compared to the Owen Sound Courthouse," he said. "Owen Sound got a new courthouse, Goderich got a total revamp, it's time for Brockton and Bruce County to have a new courthouse here in Walkerton."
Council received the grant report from staff and passed a motion to send a letter to the Solicitor General and local MPPs asking for a reconsideration of the court security formula.