Hastings County councillors are not impressed with steep increases in the cost of policing by the OPP.
Tuesday the county’s Finance and Personnel Committee unanimously voted to have council demand an explanation from the provincial government on why OPP costs skyrocketed for next year.
Hastings County CAO Connor Dorey described the increase.
“OPP costs in 2024 they were around $8.5 million. In 2025 based on the billing statement details it’s about $10.3 million so it’s an increase of about
$1.8 million across all of Hastings County which equates to a 21 per cent across those fourteen.”
Centre Hastings Mayor Tom Deline said something’s got to give.
“I mean there’s gotta be some realism come into this. We can’t keep hitting our people up with 10, 12, 15, 17 per cent increases in taxes and still
provide the services so this I think a very important one and we should really challenge at the provincial level but not at the local level. The local level
is providing the service. They didn’t set this budget.”
The OPP increases alone mean local tax bills in the 14 municipalities could go up by around 3 per cent.
The provincial government has said that municipalities would not be “negatively affected” by the cost increases but local politicians have not been told what that means.
