Council members for the Municipality of Brockton are thankful they won't be picking up the tab for court costs this year, but would still like to see the system change.
The province's Court Security Prisoner Transportation Grant allocation for the year is nearly $457,000, which staff project will cover about 56 per cent of the annual cost of the service.
After splitting the court costs that weren't covered by provincial funding last year, Bruce County has the budget space to absorb the full additional court security costs in 2026.
The remaining cost is projected to be around $365,000.
Councillor Gregory McLean echoed comments that they needed to continue to advocate for the province to bear the cost of the service provided to provincial courts.
"Thank you to Bruce County for their contribution," he said. "But further to Councillor (Mitch) Clark's comments, how sustainable is this? It's great this year, do we have a commitment for next year? But we also as a council, need to continue to advocate to the provincial government to get this money on a regular basis."
Councillor Tim Elphick said they were thankful of the county stepping up, but inequities in the provincial funding still need to be addressed.
"The total net cost to Brockton is entirely unsustainable and unwarranted," he said. "It's something where the costs are determined and divided out by OPP serviced areas. It's something that proportionally not fair, given that we in the Walkerton area service lower-tier municipalities, three of which have municipal police services still and do not share in the same costs that we do in terms of the overall operation of court security and prisoner transportation."
Since 2020, Brockton has spent over $862,000 on court security costs.
Court security costs for the municipality increased 68 per cent between 2024 and 2025, a figure they hope will be reduced with the reopening of the Walkerton jail.
