Hub Staff

Saugeen Shores Council voted against hiring a consultant to do a service level analysis of Saugeen Shores Police Services, by a vote of 5 to 4, during the December 12 Committee of a Whole meeting.

During a November budget meeting, Councillor Don Matheson gave Town Staff the direction to look into a consultant to see what policing option would be better for Saugeen Shores - the current municipal police force or the OPP. Funding for the project was set at $25,000 from tax payer money.

Councillors Don Matheson, John Rich, Mike Myatt and Cheryl Grace all voted for the idea of a service level analysis; while Councillors Don Matheson and John Rich stated they were doing due diligence as councillors, as a minority within the community expressed their desire for an OPP costing analysis.

“As an elective representative of the community, I've had a number of people ask me to ‘please do this’, and I will be supporting this to answer the question once and for all,” said Matheson before the decision was made.

John Rich stated that people have asked him as a councillor to look after the purse strings and do due diligence so that he could, in all honesty, say, “I’ve done the best that I can to make sure that we’re providing the best police service as possible”.

Mayor Mike Smith sat on the Police Board for the Saugeen Shores Police Service for 14 years and didn’t believe hiring a consultant would bring forth specific information.

Current Chair of the Police Service Board and Deputy Mayor Luke Charbonneau told his fellow councillors that there is no current comparison to a municipality similar to Saugeen Shores that has gone through a three year estimate period with the OPP available because it doesn't exist; and believed that $25,000 would be spent and Council would end up right where they started.

“I don’t need to spend $25,000 on a consultant to answer the questions to whether or not this is in the best interest of the community, or would be this best interest in the community, to go with the OPP, I know that it’s not,” said Charbonneau. “I think that you will find that this $25,000 consultant won't answer the questions and you'd be back to where you are right now, in your mind assessing the question based on your knowledge of the community.”

Earlier in the evening Police Service Board member Kent Milroy and Officer Greg Fletcher of the Saugeen Shores Police Association made deputations before Saugeen Shores Council, both opposing the service level analysis.

“This idea that the OPP is the answer to all concerns is a figment of someone's imagination and the process of even starting a costing estimate is a complex, intensive and potentially divisive and explosive issue that Councils far into the future will be forced to deal with,” said Milroy. He went on to mention 10 different municipalities who have looked into the OPP avenue.

Some standout municipalities included:

Smiths Falls - recently terminated the proposal process because of "future unknown costs”. Smiths Falls is host to the Eastern Ontario OPP dispatch centre.

Sarnia - rejected OPP’s proposal in favour of continuing local policing because costs were exorbitant to change to OPP contract policing.

Brockville - in negltiations for several years, recently was refused the option of a stand-alone service equivalent to local policing. City would become a "service zone" only of an existing detachment, officers would no longer be dedicated to service within the city.

Kenora - originally accepted OPP contract to contain costs. Mayor Dave Campbell stated that costs are "higher than ever" under the "new costing model" and there is absolutely no local control over escalating costs.

City of Kawartha Lakes - contract policing costs up 12 percent in 2016.

Milroy also stated that if the Saugeen Shores made the switch to OPP, there would not be dedicated officers for the area and that emergency calls that require police presence could take over 40 minutes. “Saugeen Shores will become a ‘patrol zone’ where officers are drawn from regularly to service other municipalities. They will no longer be dedicated to policing only Saugeen Shores,” said Milroy.

Following Council’s decision, Greg Fletcher said the Saugeen Shores Police Service are happy to serve the community and “this is a vote of confidence in the service that we provide”.

“Both OPP and municipal services all provide great service to the community, but it’s just a different kind of service, a different level of service. I think the community has spoken,” said Fletcher. He then brought up the recent police services survey where 7 out of 10 people in Saugeen Shores stated they were satisfied or extremely satisfied with the current police service.

Following the vote and his passionate delegation Kent Milroy said he feels wonderful and said it is “about time we put this to bed”.

Kent Milroy during his delegation to Saugeen Shores Council, December 12.

Greg Fletcher during his delegation to Saugeen Shores Council, December 12.