OPINIONS
editionap.ca
What you should know about new OPP costs By Superintendent Rick Philbin Ontario Provincial Police Special to the Tribune-Express
It’s alive! It is, finally, Spring, a season when a person’s thoughts turn to love, renewal, dirt, emerging weeds and the eternal pursuit of the perfect lawn. Theworld has suddenly come alive to the cacophony of people and awide assortment of other critters emerging from hibernation. Did you celebrate Earth Day, April 22? Of course, every day must be Earth Day, because, unless you are prepared to hitch a one-way ride to Mars, and regardless of what you have seen on Star Trek, this planet is still the best place to inhabit. Earth Day, like many other fun events, is primarily celebrated by schools and young people, because the rest of us in the real world, do not have the time to contemplate how we can save this place from ourselves and our horrible, wasteful practices. Sure, we all recognize that recycling and conservation are important. And we know that since we live, we consume, waste and pollute. Creatures of habit, we have adopted Earth-friendly routines, congratulating ourselves for recycling, re-using and refusing 24-7. Even as we sleep, we are helping save the planet, because somewhere, tiny micro-organisms are working in the compost containers we maintain in our yards and under our kitchen sinks. We search on the Internet, in the wee hours of the morning when Hydro is cheapest, efficient ways to retrofit homes with power systems that are powered by sun, wind and water. We have not accepted a new plastic bag in decades. In fact, over the years, we have amassed so many environmentally-friendly containers that we are running out of space to store all those “green”multi-coloured bags that are piling up in the car, the kitchen, the closet, the“spare”room. But it is almost impossible to escape environmentally-friendly products. They are everywhere. You go to a trade fair, at the entrance someone is bound to be handing out free“green” bags with a glow-in-the-dark corporate logo. When you decline the generous offer, the response is one of shock. You feel guilt. Who does not want another, free perfectly good cloth bag? Do you not want to preserve Earth? You drive away, in a fuel-burning vehicle, feeling even more remorse about your ever- expanding carbon footprint. As you leave the concrete and enter the countryside, snow geese and Canada geese lift from water-covered fields as song birds mate, nests come to life and frost slowly leaves the land. Then you notice a garbage bag, a big honking plastic bag, discarded in a ditch. Then there are empty coffee cups, cigarette butts, and an assortment of debris, all over the place, lingering in ditches, hanging in trees, clinging to shrubbery. Before you can despair about the unthinking habits of pigs who litter, spirits lift as you spot a good citizen, getting down and dirty, armed with gloves and a recycling box, scooping in a ditch to clean up his little part of the world. Unfortunately, the emergence of trash is a harbinger of the new season, one of the numerous sights and smells that signal that Old ManWinter may have left the building, at last. While some two-legged animals are intolerable, we do our best to share space with raccoons, wild turkeys, coyotes, deer, moose, fishers, weasels, skunks, groundhogs, moles, foxes, chipmunks, turtles, and, for a few weeks in Spring and Fall, flocks of migratory birds. These graceful, loud and hungry honkers provide free air shows on a daily basis, over fields and waterways. They are hard to miss, particularly when they leave behind “calling cards” on grass where humans tend to congregate. Here again, the proper attitude and a pair of rubber boots can help us achieve balance in the great outdoors.
of $260 would be charged along with a cost for Calls for Service. OPP-policed municipa- lities that currently pay lower than $300 per household should see their policing costs rise; municipalities that currently pay more than $400 per household should see their policing costs drop. Let’s be honest, some municipalities have enjoyed unrealistically low policing costs with the OPP for many years, while others have paid much higher per household due to a complex billing process. Addressing this discrepancy is the right
As Commander of the OPP’s Municipal Police Bureau, I would like to address some misconceptions and misunderstandings about how the OPP polices municipalities both under contract and non-contract basis and recovers the costs. There is currently a healthy and important debate underway about the cost of policing in Ontario and future sustainability. Part of that discussion involves how the Ontario Provincial Police
thing to do, although we acknowledge that the transition for the municipalities who will experience rising costs will be difficult. The Ontario govern- ment is considering ways to lessen the financial impact du- ring the transition to a new billing model. The OPP Cost Reco- very Formula resulted in a reduction of one per cent in billing for direct operating expenses (gas, uni- forms, computers,
(OPP) delivers police services to 324 mu- nicipalities and our current billing mo- del, which is under review. In the inte- rest of contributing to informed debate, here are five things everyone who lives in an OPP-policed municipality should know. All municipalities must provide poli- cing services to their constituents. They can do this in a seve-
Let’s be honest, some municipalities have enjoyed unrealistically low policing costs with the OPP for many years, while others have paid much higher per household due to a complex billing process. Addressing this discrepancy is the right thing to do.
ral ways. Just one of these is contracting services from the OPP under Section 10 of the Police Services Act (PSA). Amunicipality may also: establish a police service; enter into an agreement with one or more other municipal councils to consti- tute a joint police service board; enter into an agreement with one or more councils to amalgamate their police services; or contract services from an adjacent police service (a police service that shares a poli- tical boundary with the contracting muni- cipality). If none of these choices is exercised, poli- cing services are provided by default by the OPP under Section 5.1 of the PSA. Municipalities have these policing choices and many decide on the OPP for a variety of good reasons. I am pleased to report that OPP-policed communities report a high level of satisfaction with our services. Provincial regulations require the full and fair cost recovery from municipalities for OPP services. The OPP and the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services are in the midst of a Billing Model Review that will result in a fairer, more transparent and less complex process – something many muni- cipalities have demanded. The total revenues recovered under the new model will still be solely cost recovery, but some municipalities will pay more and some will pay less. The Provincial Auditor General has also recommended that the Ontario Provincial Police should simplify its costing and billing methods. He also said the OPP should make the bil- ling and costing methods more transparent and “address the issues that result in muni- cipalities paying different rates” (2012 Pro- vincial Audit). In 2015, under the proposed billing mo- del an estimated base cost per household
etc.) from 2010 to 2013. This was a significant accomplishment compared to other police services which are also struggling with rising costs in a time of restraint. I must acknowledge that uniform salaries, which are not part of the Cost Recovery Formula, are 80 to 85 per cent of the overall costs charged to OPP-policed municipali- ties. After two years without receiving a gene- ral increase in wages (2012, 2013), OPP offi- cers received an increase of 8.55 per cent in 2014 to raise the salary of an OPP Provincial Constable to be equal to that of the highest paid police service in the province. The OPP will have to recover these costs in the municipalities it polices. Regardless of any changes to billing and the wage raise in 2014, the OPP remains the most cost-effective policing option for many municipalities in Ontario. OPP costs, on average, are less than half of the average cost of municipal police ser- vices in the province (based on OPP and Ministry of Finance data). While the per household cost of policing can vary widely under the current billing model, our low per household cost average tells us that the OPP is doing a really good job of being cost-effective and efficient. The men and the women of the OPP are dedicated professionals who provide a wide range of policing services to Ontario’s communities. We continue to work hard each and every day to keep the trust and confidence of the people of this province. We look forward to continuing to work with all of our partners to ensure a safe and secure Ontario. To view a more detailed video statement on this subject by Superintendent Philbin, visit the OPP YouTube channel at: http:// youtu.be/wJ70dn3X2LU Version Française: http://youtu.be/SSqS5QeVi2g.
36 700 copies
Bertrand Castonguay , President, bertrand@eap.on.ca Roger Duplantie , D.G. / G.M., roger@eap.on.ca François Bélair , Sales & Development, fbelair@eap.on.ca François Legault , Directeur de l’information/News Editor, francois.legault@eap.on.ca Yvan Joly , Sales director (Hawkesbury), yvan@eap.on.ca François Leblanc , Directeur (Lachute), francois.leblanc@eap.on.ca Gilles Normand , Production & Distribution Mgr., gilles.normand@eap.on.ca Julien Boisvenue , Layout & Prepress Mgr., julien.boisvenue@eap.on.ca
Publié le vendredi par/Published on Friday by : La Compagnie d’édition André Paquette Inc. Imprimé par/Printed by: Imprimerie Prescott et Russell, Hawkesbury, ON Bureau Hawkesbury Office: 1100, rue Aberdeen St., Hawkesbury, ON Tel.: 613 632-4155 • Fax.: 613 632-8601 • 1 800 267-0850 Bureau Lachute Office : 52, rue Principale St., Lachute, QC J8H 3A8 Tel.: 450 562-8593 • Fax.: 450 562-1434 • 1 800 561-5738 # convention : 0040012398 Toute reproduction du contenu est interdite à moins d’autorisation écrite au préalable. No content may be reproduced without prior written permission. Avis : En cas d’erreur ou d’omission, la responsabilité du journal ne dépasse, en aucun temps, le montant de l’espace de l’erreur en cause. Attention : In case of error or omission, in no way will the publisher be liable for more than the amount charged for space concerned. Représentation nationale/National representation Sans frais / Toll free : 1-800-361-6890 Nous invitons les lecteurs à nous faire parvenir leurs lettres qui ne doivent pas dépasser 300 mots. Nous nous réservons le droit de les modifier ou de refuser de les publier. L’expéditeur doit inclure son nom, prénom, adresse et numéro de téléphone. Readers are invited to send us their letters that must not exceed 300 words. We reserve the right to modify them or to refuse to publish them. The writer must include their names, address and telephone number.
Made with FlippingBook HTML5