In 2025, the Town of The Blue Mountains faces a 19.9 per cent increase in costs for policing.
At its meeting on Oct. 28, The Blue Mountains council passed a resolution to request a meeting with the Ministry of the Solicitor General at the upcoming Rural Ontario Municipalities Association conference to discuss rising police costs.
Like many communities across Ontario, The Blue Mountains is facing rising costs for policing from the Ontario Provincial Police in 2025.
Town staff told CollingwoodToday that the town’s bill for policing is rising by $570,038 in 2025 from $2,864,800 in 2024 to $3,434,838 – a 19.9 per cent hike.
Tim Hendry, the town’s manager of communications and economic development said the OPP cost increase represents a 2.9 per cent local tax increase on its own before any other changes/increases in the 2025 budget are considered.
Hendry explained that town staff have been tracking the financial numbers for policing costs and have kept council apprised of the situation via email. A formal staff report on the issue has not come forward at this time. The town has also had discussions with MPP Brian Saunderson’s office on the matter.
Other local communities are facing increases to OPP costs as well. Collingwood is staring at a 37-per-cent increase for its OPP costs and leaders in that community have vowed to take action. Wasaga Beach faces a 20-per-cent increase.
In an interview after the meeting, Mayor Andrea Matrosovs and Deputy Mayor Peter Bordignon (the town’s finance committee chair) said the OPP cost increase is a situation all municipalities are facing.
“It’s in response to what’s happening all over Ontario,” said Matrosovs.
Bordignon said the increase would be part of council’s upcoming budget process.
“We’ll deal with it in due course through the budget cycle,” he said. “There is a shock factor, but it’s something we can deal with through the process.”
Erin Cranton of the OPP’s corporate communications bureau told CollingwoodToday in an email last week that the OPP recognizes that there are concerns about the cost of policing services next year.
She said under the current OPP billing model, all municipalities are paying the same base services cost per property, plus additional costs for calls for service, overtime, accommodations, cleaning services, prisoner transportation, court security and enhancements. Cranton estimates that the cost for policing per average household for 2025 will be $399.
“Municipal policing costs increased in the 2025 annual billing statements due to both an increase in OPP salaries and benefits that resulted from the ratification of the 2023-2026 OPPA Uniform and Civilian agreements and a return to pre-pandemic workload levels,” said Cranton, adding that salaries and benefits account for about 90 per cent of OPP municipal policing costs.
She said that costs for components such as court security, prisoner transportation and in some cases, calls for service all decreased during the pandemic as many court proceedings were done virtually. As costs tend to take two years to reconcile, this meant that for the past two years costs were down, but are now coming back up the further away the lockdown pandemic days are in the rear-view mirror.
-With files from Jessica Owen
