Kenora grapples with spike in OPP costs

The City of Kenorais calling on the province to provide relief from a jump in policing costs, after being told the bill for OPP policing will increase by more than $2.3 million in 2025.

"The City of Kenora is currently dealing with various uncontrollable expenses," Kenora Mayor Andrew Poirier said during a virtual media event on Friday. "Uncontrollable expenses refer to costs imposed by different levels of government, including the federal andprovincial, and the city is mandated to pay."

"So we don't really have a choice in what we pay for here," Poirier said. "We're mandated through statuteor legislation to do so."

Kenora paid about$6.4 million for OPP policing in 2024; that total includes a rebate of about $530,000 that was negotiated with the Solicitor General's office, Kenora CAO Kyle Attanasio said.

"The impact of that from a property tax standpoint is a 7.6 per centproperty tax increase levied throughout the entire city," he said. "That is a 36.7 per centincrease in our OPP bill between 2024 and 2025.

"The $2.36 million increase year over year that we're seeing in our policing bill is equivalent to two times what the city puts into municipal paving each year," he said. "It is equivalent to more than three years of the city's budget towards winter control, so the city spends less on winter control over a three-year period then this proposed increase in our OPP billing."

"The increase is greater than what the city spends on its water main replacement program each year," he said. "The increase is roughly equal to the city's operating costs for the entire recreation department, and that includes running both the Moncrief Construction Sports Centre and the Bowman Electric Keewatin Memorial Arena."

High calls for service

The cost-per-household for OPP policing is $840 in 2024, but is rising to just over $1,000 in 2025, Attanasio said.

The city also receives a five per cent discount on OPP costs due to the number of calls for service police in Kenora receive, he said.

"Every time the police receive a call, provided that as a municipal call, those calls are billed back to the municipality," Attanasio said. "It's a four year-rolling average. There's other costs related to overtime, court security, prisoner transportation,accommodations."

"The biggest challenge in the City of Kenora is those calls for service keep escalating, and as they keep escalating, our costs are going up," he said. "Now we are at a point where we're receiving that five per cent discount, but we have quite a ways to go to trigger the next discount."

"So we're sort of in a position where every new call is adding more to our bill and that's the spot that we find ourselves in."

Speaking to CBC News on Thursday, Poirier said Kenora OPP get between 18,000 and 20,000 calls for service each year.

Talkswith Solicitor General

"We continue to have dialogue with, and specifically with, the Solicitor General himself aboutideas that we could look at to reduce our calls for service," Poriier said Friday, adding that he'd like to see an audit done of Kenora OPP calls for service, to ensure the city isn't paying for any calls it shouldn't be.

"We're aggressively looking to have that doneby the OPP," he said. "That's not an unreasonable request to ask for in light of what we're paying for policing."

Poirier said discussions with the Solicitor General about further reductions in policing costs are ongoing, but noted those reductions aren't addressing the fundamental problem.

"If there's flaws in the billing formula, and specifically for municipalities of our size and smaller, and even some larger ones, are having difficulties now, that has to be addressed at some point," he said.

A regional approach

Poirier said Kenora is not the only regional municipality facing such pressures.

"I've been in meetings with the Kenora District Municipal Association," he said. "That's made up of not just mayors, but representatives from a variety of councils from nine municipalities."

"We actually have sent a letter to the Solicitor General asking for a meeting to discuss this collectively, because if you reach out to all other municipalitieseast of Kenora and west of Thunder Bay, and even beyond Thunder Bay,we're all having the same discussion about substantial increases in their policing costs for 2025, and possibly going forward."