KIRKLAND LAKE - While Kirkland Lake's mayor is 'cautiously optimistic' about the province offering relief for soaring OPP costs, there are still calls for further change.
On Friday (Nov. 29), the province announced $77 million to help small, rural municipalities offset the rising costs of municipal police services provided by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).
The plan includes a 3.75 per cent reduction on 2023 total reconciled costs, a 44 per cent reduction on 2023 reconciled overtime costs and a 10 per cent reduction on amounts invoiced for 2025 policing costs.
The province is also examining options for reviewing the OPP billing model.
In a statement released on Monday (Dec. 2), Temiskaming-Cochrane MPP John Vanthof highlighted how the mayors of Kirkland Lake, Cobalt and Latchford shared concerns with him about the 2025 OPP contract increases, which in some cases were more than 30 per cent.
“For smaller communities, this would translate to a direct municipal tax increase. No one was disputing the value of the police, but the overall cost of the increase was shocking,” he wrote.
In early November, Vanthof questioned Minister of Finance Peter Bethlenfalvy about the fairness of these cost hikes, particularly for municipalities like Cobalt, where the increase in policing costs was set to be significantly higher than the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund (OMPF) increase.
Vanthof pointed out that Cobalt’s OMPF increase for 2025 would be $16,600, while the increase in policing costs for the town would be $110,704.
“I asked the Minister which basic services he suggested the town should cut to make up for the shortfall. The Solicitor General took the question and promised me he would investigate the issue,” Vanthof wrote.
“We will have to wait and see how the announced formula will impact each municipality, but it is finally a step in the right direction.”
Until Kirkland Lake Mayor Stacy Wight sees the updated OPP billing, she’s “remaining nothing more than cautiously optimistic.”
“I do believe it is in the best interest of all municipalities for the provincial government to re-upload all OPP costs to that level of government. Myself, all northern municipalities, as well as all municipal associations are calling for change,” she said.
Wight, who had previously expressed alarm over the escalating costs of OPP contracts for small, rural municipalities, noted that Kirkland Lake’s 2025 OPP bill has jumped nearly $700,000 — a five per cent increase — bringing their total policing costs to over $3.5 million.
SEE: Small towns struggling with soaring OPP costs, says Kirkland Lake mayor
This increase, Wight emphasized, does not include additional charges for things like RIDE programs or other policing services that are billed separately.
According to Wight, the total for all municipalities across the province is over $209 million.
