Belleville City Council approved a motion calling on the provincial government to be more equitable when it comes to policing costs.
In November, Ontario announced $77 million in a billing reduction for OPP services across Ontario municipalities.
Quinte News reached out to local municipal leaders to determine how much money would be reduced from the fees for OPP services.
The City of Belleville would not be affected by the billing reduction since they have their own police force – the Belleville Police Service.
Bringing forward the motion to council on Monday, Belleville Mayor Neil Ellis says that the city is not impervious to other surrounding municipalities’ incidents that involve police.
“I think it’s unfair for the province to bail out all the municipalities that have OPP costing that surround us but because we keep our own (police service) like Deep River, that we are punished for that,” Mayor Neil Ellis said in introducing the motion to council.
“We have a lot of problems that come from other municipalities, whether it’s car accidents from people being drawn in here, lots of crime and things like that. So being the hub we are, probably, and I know we are the busiest police force because we not only police the City of Belleville, we police about 50,000 people coming in here from the surrounding area. So I encourage the government to make this right.”
Councillor Kathryn Brown expressed her support for the motion saying that the city is deserving of similar provincial subsidies.
“All we’re asking for is fair and equitable treatment, regardless of who provides the policing services to our community,” Councillor Brown told council.
“We are advocating for the same 10% rebate that the OPP serviced municipalities are going to receive and I hope that we’ll work with other municipalities that have been disenfranchised by this decision by our provincial government.”
A copy of the motion is being sent to Premier Doug Ford, Ontario Solicitor General Michael Kerzner, local MPPs in the region like Bay of Quinte MPP Tyler Allsopp and Hastings—Lennox and Addington MPP Ric Bresee as well as the Association of Municipalities of Ontario and all municipalities in the province.
