Will the OPP spice up the offer?

There is still plenty of ground to cover before the Ontario Provincial Police's current exercise in billing reform arrives at its final result.

But so far, there are some positive signs, and at least a hint of something even better to come, all of which should spice up the Brockville costing debate when it resumes – we can only hope – on time for election season.

As we reported recently Mayor David Henderson likes what he sees so far.

Under the proposed new OPP billing model, base costs would take up about 73 per cent of the bill, while the calls for service portion, that part of the bill that would vary depending on how busy a place can be, would be the other 27 per cent.

OPP officials say municipalities now charged less than $300 per household will generally see an increase, while those now higher than $400 will see a drop.

Henderson, noting Brockville's current per-household policing costs are over $800, suggested the costing will give us some pretty tempting numbers to compare to the city's 181-year-old police force.

Even more interesting are some rumblings the mayor has heard, through municipal political channels, to the effect the OPP might assume court security costs in that base cost.

It's enough to make a local politician's eyes pop open in glee, given how Brockville's leaders have for a decade or more been pressing the province to redistribute the court security burden.

To sum up the debate: Brockville, as the host of the regional courthouse, must cover the costs of that facility, even though most of the cases heard there come from outside city boundaries.

The United Counties of Leeds and Grenville's counter-argument has been that, as the host of regional court services, Brockville also enjoys economic spinoff benefits.

The province is slowly uploading those court costs, with that process phased in over a few years, noted Henderson.

And now, if what he has heard is true, it will all be wrapped up for good in those OPP base costs.

Depending on how much court security inflates that base-cost portion of the bill, it could make the OPP option seem pretty attractive this coming fall.

Wishful thinking, Staff Sgt. Cathy Bell, of the OPP's municipal policing bureau, told me last week, although she used language more appropriate to her title.

“The responsibility for court security is with the municipality where the court is located, so that isn't going to change,” she said.

She added, however, that such decisions belong at the provincial cabinet level, and as far as Henderson is concerned, there may still be a discussion going on between the municipal sector and Queen's Park on that subject.

This is all speculation, of course – the stuff of blogs like these rather than news stories. But with the Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) and Good Roads conference going on as we speak, you never know...

In the meantime, in case you missed it, here's what Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Chris Lewis told my QMI colleague Jennifer O'Brien on the matter of rising policing costs.