Town wants answers from solicitor general over 37% hike on OPP bill

Collingwood would love to hear directly from the province's solicitor general on why their OPP costs are rising by 37 per cent this year.

Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to be taking calls from municipalities at the moment.

Late last month, the town’s chief administrative officer, Sonya Skinner, dropped the bombshell that the costs for Collingwood OPP would rise 37 per cent more next year, which could translate to a seven per cent tax increase next year right off the top before council even has a chance to look at the entire 2025 budget.

Collingwood isn’t alone in the increase, but is among the hardest hit – with other OPP towns on average seeing a 20 per cent hike in OPP billing in 2025.

Part of the consent agenda considered during council’s regular meeting on Nov. 4 were letters sent by the Town of Wasaga Beach, the Town of Petawawa and the Township of Whitewater Region asking for Solicitor General Michael Kerzner to step in and do something to help absorb the OPP billing hit to 2025 municipal budgets.

Wasaga Beach’s letter specifically says they are disputing the statement and are requesting the bill be reduced to a five-per-cent increase to be absorbed entirely by the province.

Their letter notes that the additional costs are directly the result of collective bargaining that was within the control of the OPP and should have been known to be financially unsustainable for municipalities. They’ve also called on the County of Simcoe to undertake a feasibility study for a "county police force."

“We’ll have to see what happens at the county level, but at this stage I’d like to ask for council to support the Wasaga Beach letter,” said Deputy Mayor Tim Fryer.

Coun. Kathy Jeffery said she didn’t have a full understanding on how Wasaga Beach came up with the five-per-cent number, and, at this point, couldn’t support the five per cent.

“We need to have a better understanding of why the OPP billing came in where it is. While five per cent sounds reasonable, what are we going to lose if we ask them to do that?” she said. “I don’t think I have a clear understanding of that.”

Coun. Christopher Baines agreed.

“I think it could end up potentially embarrassing us if those are costs that we really couldn’t get out of,” he said.

Mayor Yvonne Hamlin said that following public awareness of the increases late last month, the solicitor general’s office had planned a webinar for municipal representatives to fully explain why the costs are changing.

“That morning, it was cancelled. I suspect it was because at some level, they’re turning their mind to how to handle these large increases,” she said. “It’s hard to negotiate by way of a council resolution.”

In 2024, Collingwood was billed $5.2 million for the services provided by Collingwood OPP. Next year, the bill will be $7.1 million. Skinner said in a previous council meeting that the town did not have any communication from the OPP in advance of being notified of the increase mid-October.

The local Collingwood OPP detachment has no input on the billing, which is done through OPP’s corporate office.

Erin Cranton of the OPP’s corporate communications bureau told CollingwoodToday in an email that the OPP recognizes there are concerns about the cost of policing services next year.

She said under the current OPP billing model, all municipalities are paying the same base services cost per property, plus additional costs for calls for service, overtime, accommodations, cleaning services, prisoner transportation, court security and enhancements.

Cranton estimates that the cost for policing per average household for 2025 will be $399.

She said that costs for components such as court security, prisoner transportation and in some cases, calls for service all decreased during the pandemic as many court proceedings were done virtually. As costs tend to take two years to reconcile, this meant that for the past two years costs were down, but are now coming back up the further away the lockdown pandemic days are in the rear-view mirror.

“While this is the highest-per-property cost since the implementation of the OPP billing model in 2015, this cost continues to compare favourably to other police services in Ontario,” she said.

Following the publication of CollingwoodToday’s story on Oct. 23 regarding the increase, a spokesperson for the solicitor general reached out to provide a comment.

“We understand that some municipalities face additional costs due to their existing agreements with the OPP. We will work with these municipalities to ensure they are not negatively financially impacted by this,” wrote Sydney Dubin, manager of communications and media relations with the solicitor general’s office, in an email.

Dubin did not return a follow-up request from CollingwoodToday for an interview with the solicitor general.

It was a topic also covered at the South Georgian Bay Mayors’ and CAOs Forum meeting on Nov. 1. The forum is made up of the mayors and CAOs from Collingwood, Town of the Blue Mountains, Clearview Township, Grey Highlands, Meaford and Wasaga Beach.

Out of their discussion, Skinner said the forum is considering requesting a delegation to the solicitor general’s office during the Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) conference Jan. 19 to 22, 2025. However, it’s unlikely change will come out of that meeting in time for municipalities to firm up their 2025 budgets.

At the end of discussion, Fryer said he would acquiesce to council and not put forward a motion to send a formal letter at this time.

“It’s of a magnitude that’s very concerning. I will continue keeping an eye on it,” he said.