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Orangeville’s OPP budget has many moving parts, says treasurer

December 11, 2025   ·   0 Comments

By JAMES MATTHEWS

Orangeville’s estimates for next year’s policing costs hit pretty close to the mark.

And that’s pretty handy when staff and council are working toward the 2026 municipal operating and capital budget. No decision was made when council met on Dec. 8. The complete municipal budget was to be revisited during a special meeting on Dec. 10.

The estimated cost of OPP billing in the 2026 budget was $6,463,000. That was only about $6,000 off the billed amount of $6,469,000.

Bills for policing are delivered at the year’s beginning. There’s a mechanism in the billing model that allows municipalities to be charged for any under-billing from the previous year. Likewise, municipalities are credited for any excess amount paid if the service ends up lower than what was billed.

The OPP under-billed Orangeville by $550,065 in 2024.

So the total costs coming to Orangeville are about $7 million, said Cheryl Braan, the town’s treasurer.

“But not all of that is ongoing,” she said.

Policing costs in 2025 “significantly exceeded” budget capacity by municipalities across the province. So the crowd at Queen’s Park offered a one-time monetary salve to allow municipalities to phase in that OPP bill over time.

Braan said Orangeville received a little more than $1 million in relief, which was used to phase in an increase of about $1.5 million over two years.

In addition to the 2025 portion of that phase-in, the town for 2026 included an estimated increase of 11 per cent on gross costs from 2025, “without any presumption that we’d receive more one-time relief funding,” she said.

“At the time of finalizing and tabling the budget, we did not know what our final allocation from the OPP would be for 2026.”

But then they got word from the province’s solicitor general’s office that the town’s estimates are close to what the OPP’s bill is for the coming year.

“What we didn’t understand, though, was that the 11 per cent cap that was being applied by the Ministry of the Solicitor General to costs was on billed costs in 2025 net of the one-time relief,” Braan said. “So they were using a smaller number.”

What that means is the town’s net impact for policing costs next year will be “temporarily below” the current provision by about $827,000.

“By keeping that one-time relief in the equation from 2025 into 2026, the province is allowing municipalities more time to catch up to OPP billing amounts,” Braan said.

If the tax levy for next year is cut by $827,000 and no further relief is given by the province in 2027, the town will have to increase the 2027 levy by at least $827,000. Braan said that would be a tax increase of about 1.87 per cent.

That would defeat the purpose of the province’s temporary relief.

Town staff made some recommendations to prevent adding a significant amount to next year. Braan said tax stabilization reserve funds aren’t required because costs are actually below the estimate. But given the temporary nature of the relief, staff suggested that the OPP contract budget lines be adjusted to the appropriate cost level.

It’s also recommended that a contribution be made to the general capital reserve fund to absorb the temporary budget capacity. That reserve contribution will be used to cover any added cost the following year, so there’s no further tax levy increase.

“There’s a lot of moving parts here,” Braan said.

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