Last year I wrote about the overall costs for the OPP in the rural communities they service and how policing costs are growing exponentially while crime is going down. And that the Auditor General ‘s report in 2012 made it clear that while there are a myriad of reasons, the cost of policing is clearly out of control and made this statement “the OPP, in conjunction with the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, should formally assess the correlation of its funding and staffing levels with the actual demand for policing services, based on such factors as calls for service, motor vehicle fatalities and injuries, number of reported offences, clearance rates for crimes and crime severity levels.” In other words there should be a correlation between cost and results or at least services.
I wish I could say there is good news and they took this advice to heart.
Unfortunately the OPP has decided that this advice is wrong and is moving in exactly the opposite direction.
But before we go there.. some history
Prior to 1998 rural municipalities generally did not pay for policing. Then downloading happened (remember Highway 62) and to help municipalities swallow the cost of these extra services, various provincial grant programs were started. Now they are all being phased down or out, a typical pattern. But the larger issue was that the system for charging municipalities for these down loaded police services was poorly developed and virtually impossible to understand… a real head scratcher. And the numbers were very big for rural municipalities (remember that, according to the Auditor General, the OPP is the highest cost police service in all Canada including the RCMP).
So several municipalities got sufficiently irate with this whole system (including Bancroft) they went on a rampage for action. It quickly became apparent that nothing is going to happen on the overall cost escalation. 87% of OPP costs are staffing and most recently despite a freeze on public service pay, the OPP got an 8.5% increase. And it isn’t just base pay that is the culprit..the pension plan is very generous and overtime which had been trending down has skyrocketed again of late ( up 60% since 2005). Job security is pretty good as you can’t be fired unless convicted of a criminal act, mandated by the Police Services Act. So the only objective was to shift costs onto other municipalities. The OPP cost juggernaut was just going to keep growing as no one at Queens Park had the fortitude to tackle shrinking the cost pie. Simply too big a challenge for the politicians.
So how has the new formula for charging municipalities changed? Well once again, as with MPAC and Hydro One, the OPP has found a way to pick the pockets of cottagers. A core part of the formula is residential assessment values. So if you only use your property in the summer, the OPP will be charging the municipality as if you were a permanent resident. And variability by service levels? Not going to happen..the primary charge is a flat percentage regardless of whether any crime is committed , deterred or acted upon . A classic bureaucrats pricing system.
Now the differences in urban vs. rural policing have been studied to death and they are substantial. But if you have to categorize municipal policing into 4 categories they would be:
- Citizen generated calls for service
- OPP Enforcement actives (traffic, radar, RIDE)
- Crime prevention activities
- Admin duties
How do the old and new policing cost models compare?
Previously HH paid for those police services listed above provided directly to the municipality and a portion of overhead costs. Now there will be a per household charge based on assessed property values (about 73% of total charge) with a small portion for calls for service.
Services used to be purchased from the OPP with some negotiation. Now there is no negotiation on the base 73% charge..it is simply however the OPP adds up all its costs. If you are involved in a business think about that: you get to charge what you want whether you provide a product/service or not.
There will be no consideration of commercial or industrial policing needs, charges are for households only. So urban policing costs will go down even in smaller centres like Bancroft . In fact the estimate is a lot of municipalities with their own force will turn to the now lower cost OPP.
And for municipalities like HH with a high waterfront residential component, the cost increase is devastating.
Overall it means policing will rise substantially in the municipal budget, regardless of whether there is any crime or calls for service (in Toronto policing is about 10%of the budget). And no negotiation with the cost structure which the Auditor-General has clearly stated is out of control. Total cost per sworn member for municipalities that contract with the Ontario Provincial Police for policing services (including cost-recovery for dispatch and equipment) rose by 18 percent from $122,200 in 2007 to $144,000 in 2011 (Auditor General 2012).
What does this all mean for Hastings Highlands taxpayers?
In HH our total policing bill will go from $665,669 to $1,030,202 between 2014 and 2017, an increase of 55%. Remember our total municipal operating cost is currently about $8 Million . So policing is going from an already substantial 8 % of spending to 13%. Non-negotiable with no relationship to service.
Tough to restrain tax increases to inflation
Now the province will try to make this bitter pill easier to swallow (as they did with downloading Highway 62) by offering some interim relief, but make no mistake: this medicine will be just as bitter and eventually we will have to swallow the whole pill.
And don’t forget that this forced payment with no negotiation for the highest cost police force in Canada means that many rural municipalities (including HH) will have to cut back on other social services the community desperately needs.
Get our own police force you say? Well that is a subject for another day, but don’t expect good news.
As they say there is only one taxpayer
Bill Cheshire
Baptiste Lake
