Heather Wright/The Independent

Concerns about rising OPP costs are easing in Lambton after the province announced $77 million in funding to offset the bills which are up at least 15 per cent for most municipalities.

In late October, the OPP released its 2025 projections for the 327 municipalities it covers across the province. 

The provincial police service will spend $445,679,925 this year for municipal policing. That’s up from $386,722,216 in 2024. It’s a 15 per cent increase generating nearly $59 million more from the estimated 2.5 million people served by the OPP.

Some of that increase is due to rising labour costs. Eighty-eight per cent of the OPP’s budget is labour cost, and recently OPP officers signed a four-year contract which boosted wages 4.75 per cent in 2023 and 4.5 per cent in 2024. This is the first-year municipal government’s feel the cost of that increase. 

In Lambton Shores, where the OPP spends a lot of time policing summer revellers in Grand Bend, the bill in 2024 topped $2,976,118. In 2025, that’s expected to climb 24 per cent to $3,679,998. 

Petrolia’s policing cost were set to increase 21.4 per cent or about $240,000.

St. Clair Township paid $2,309,187 for its OPP contract in 2024. The municipality was staring down a bill for $2,728,602 – an 18 per cent increase.  That’s alone would translate into a 2.5 per cent municipal tax increase, said Treasurer George Lozon in a report to council. 

St. Clair, at the urging of Mayor Jeff Agar wrote to the province to complain about the stiff increases.

Most Lambton municipalities are facing double-digit increases which drove their budgets up two to five per cent before politicians could even begin to deal with the municipality’s own expenses.

But concern turned to relief Friday when the province announced it was setting aside over $77 million in “financial relief to municipalities to help offset the increased cost of municipal police services provided by the OPP.” The province said the money was to help cover the costs of the collective agreement between the province and the OPP.

Solicitor General Michael Kerzner said in a news release the money “will help municipal leaders balance their budgets and invest in their communities while ensuring no change to the policing provided by the OPP that keeps families and businesses safe.”

By Monday, most municipalities were receiving word that almost all of their increase for the year would be covered.

In Warwick, Treasurer Trevor Jarrett says the province will send $103,000 to the township. “It’s just enough to offset the 2025 OPP cost increase,” he wrote in an email to The Independent.

In Dawn-Euphemia, Mayor Al Broad told councillors Monday the township would receive over $54,000 to cover the cost of its increase.

And in Petrolia, Mayor Brad Loosley says Sarnia-Lambton MPP Bob Bailey assured him $206,000 would be on the way to help cover most of the town’s $240,202 increase. 

With the cash comes word, too, the province will “will also be examining options for reviewing the OPP billing model to ensure that it meets the needs of communities across the province.”

It’s not clear how long that might take but it’s an important point considering the OPP contract which raised police salaries to the highest level in Ontario is spread out over four years. 

Loosley hopeful the rural mayors won’t be in the same boat next fall when the OPP releases its 2026 projections.

“I would hope they would sort it out before that, but I also know they don’t always move very quickly,” said Loosley.

The announcement has sparked more calls for cash, this time from Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley. In a letter to Premier Doug Ford, Bradley credits the government for seeing the need in the rural community but adds policing costs are also rising in the city. Sarnia’s police budget has gone up 35 per cent in three years. Mississauga is facing a 21 per cent increase in policing. Bradley says “a significant portion of theses costs are procedural and burdensome.”
The costs, he says come from the 2019 overhaul of the Ontario Police Service Act which mandated things such as diversity plans and training, and the mandatory training for police board members. 

Bradley says those costs have been “placed on the shoulders of local taxpayers.”

Sarnia’s mayor says the 44 cities with municipal police departments would also appreciate provincial assistance.