Council will tackle one of the town’s largest budget items at tonight’s meeting.
The Collingwood police budget is 16 per cent of the overall municipal budget, and the OPP contract is the single, largest expense line in the budget.
In 2019, staff expect the town to pay a little over $5.2 million for policing.
CAO Fareed Amin, Clerk Sara Almas, and Treasurer Marjory Leonard, are bringing a report to council tonight to recommend renewing the OPP policing contract for a three-year term. The report also includes information from the OPP Policing Contract Bureau presentation at the Strategic Initiatives Committee meeting held on Jan. 22.
The existing OPP contract expired Dec. 31, 2018, but was extended one month to allow a new council to take office and hear a presentation from the contract bureau.
Currently, the OPP billing model is based on a base service plus calls for service (cost recovery) formula.
The base service is billed out to municipalities based on how many properties are included in that town. The cost per property is $189. The base cost for 12,294 household, commercial, and industrial properties in Collingwood is $2,330,205.
Base services include legislated activities including crime prevention, 24-hour staffing, general patrol; proactive policing like RIDE, traffic safety, community policing and intelligence gathering; officer training and administrative duties; and all inspector and staff sergeant positions.
Calls for service are billed based on a municipality’s usage level. They would include crime calls; provincial statutes like the Mental Health Act, trespassing and landlord/tenant disputes; motor vehicle collisions; and general calls for service related to false alarms, missing property, and missing persons.
An estimate provided by the contract bureau suggests the 2019 cost for calls for service in Collingwood will be $2,329,538.
There are additional costs for overtime, court security, cleaning/caretakers, accommodations, enhancements, and prisoner transportation.
Together the base cost, calls for service, and additional costs are expected to amount to $5,235,535 for Collingwood in 2019.
According to the staff report, which cites Collingwood’s OPP Detachment Commander Mary Shannon, the current service levels and the number of officers in Collingwood has remained the same since 2010.
According to the staff report before council tonight, staff recommend a three-year contract to avoid re-negotiating in an election year, and suggest the detachment commander continue to monitor the impact of growth on service levels.
Tonight’s council meeting begins at 5 p.m. You can find the OPP contract staff report here, and the council meeting agenda here.
