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OPP staff changes alters Mono police service agreement

February 19, 2026   ·   0 Comments

By JAMES MATTHEWS

Mono’s OPP service agreement will be altered starting in March, and the change won’t mean extra costs.

Mono pays for policing above the standard OPP agreement. The current additional policing agreement runs until December 2029 and includes 1.25 full-time equivalent (FTE) officers to cover enhanced traffic enforcement. That’s going to change on March 1.

The provincial police force said last fall that a number of part-time officers had retired and that it wouldn’t be able to meet the extra 1.25 FTE, which equates to two part-time officers.

One of those officers left the detachment, and the second officer retired.

The OPP informed Mono late last year that the municipality’s policing contract needed to be amended. Specifically, the service wanted to change the agreement to one FTE.

“I was pretty adamant that we should have no decrease in service,” Mono Mayor John Creelman said.

Instead of hiring a pair of part-time officers, the police force informed the municipality that it would hire a single full-time officer. And that’s the reason for the FTE decrease.

A report to council indicates that a change to one FTE doesn’t mean a loss in policing in Mono.

Mayor John Creelman said paid duty officers can supplement the new agreement if extra policing is required and the funds are available.

Paid duty rates range from $88.53 to $113.33 per hour. Vehicle and admin costs are additional. A typical four-hour traffic patrol would cost about $130 per hour.

“One advantage of paid duty is that it gives the town significant control over when and where additional police services are deployed,” according to the staff report.

The 2026 cost summary for policing is estimated at $219,737 for one FTE. That means a $62.43 cost per Mono household. That’s almost an extra three per cent more than the 2025 cost estimate.

Councillor Melinda Davie asked how council will know when more policing is required.

Creelman said the extra paid duty comes into effect when the town triggers it.

“We could do so, for instance, on long weekends,” he said. “We could also do it in specified spots.”

“When it comes to paid duty, I think that council might just give general direction to staff on either a dollar amount or the type of times and locations that they’re interested in,” said Fred Simpson, the town’s clerk. “Whichever way council wants to go.”

“We could do both, actually,” Creelman said.

Les Halucha, the town’s treasurer, said the change doesn’t require more money from town coffers.

“In fact, if we never trigger a paid duty, we actually save money,” Creelman said.

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