The province has announced financial relief to help communities like Essex and Kingsville deal with budget pressures due to increasing policing costs.
The Ontario government announced Friday that it's proposing over $77 million in financial relief to municipalities, predominantly small and rural communities, to help address the budget impacts resulting from the collective bargaining agreement that was reached between the province and the Ontario Provincial Police Association in July 2024.
The union said at the time that the four-year deal made OPP officers the highest paid in the province. It spans from 2023 to 2026 and includes retroactive raises of 4.75 per cent for the first year and 4.5 per cent for the second, as well as 2.75 per cent raises for the final two years.
The Town of Kingsville is looking at a $385,000 increase in its 2025 draft budget due to salary increases in the town's contract with the OPP.
The Town of Essex is looking at around a seven per cent tax increase in its 2025 draft budget, with 3.3 per cent of that alone due to the OPP contract, a $600,000 increase for police service.
Essex Mayor Sherry Bondy says town administration is already looking at the announcement to see exactly how much that will help them.
"What in reality, what dollars does that mean in reality? Any news is welcome news, and we'll definitely take this into consideration in our next budget meeting, which is on Dec. 9," she says.
Kingsville Mayor Dennis Rogers says he got a call from the premier's office that they heard the town's concerns.
"Obviously I'm excited to see this, and I've flipped it over to our administration for them to work out and just to see the impact for our 2025 budget," he says.
Kingsville Town Council meets for budget deliberations on Dec. 4.
Rogers says he's looking forward to hearing from administration.
"that $400,000 could go to some much-needed infrastructure and other items that are necessities of a community and necessities of a municipality," he says.
TAG: The Ontario government's proposal would support small and rural municipalities by offsetting the 2025 impacts of OPP salary increases. This includes:
A 3.75 per cent bill reduction on 2023 total reconciled costs,
A 44 per cent bill reduction on 2023 reconciled overtime costs, and
A 10 per cent bill reduction on amounts invoiced for 2025 policing costs.