The clock’s midnight strike announced a new year of policing in Callander, as OPP officers made their way downtown on January 1st to begin their watch.
Chief Carson Pardy was there as well to help usher in a new year that will see Callander welcoming the OPP to provide police services for the community.
The change in policing comes after North Bay Police Board announced in September they would not be renewing a policing contract with Callander, which left the municipality one option—call the OPP.
See: North Bay Police ending service in Callander at the end of the year
In December, the OPP presented options to Callander’s council, suggesting the municipality could enter a three-year transitional contract that would cost about $1.4 million per year.
Sticker shock spread around the council table. Councillors and Mayor Rob Noon were hesitant to jump on board with the transitional model.
See: Fat stacks of cash for Callander's thin blue line
The CAO mentioned during council’s December 21st meeting—a special meeting held to discuss their options—that policing was becoming a “heated topic” as the $1.4 million was about twice as much as the town was planning to budget for the expense.
However, the OPP had another option on hand which would forgo the transitional contract and allow the municipality to pay annually for services rendered.
Essentially, the municipality opted to not sign a contract with the OPP, but even without a contract, the OPP must provide service to any municipality without its own police force, and now Callander and the OPP are operating under Section 5.1 of the Act for Ontario Provincial Police Services.
By not penning the three-year transitional contract, and working within the section 5.1 model, the municipality will be charged approximately $375,000 annually.
This number was provided to council by the OPP and is based on an estimate of what the municipality will need by way of police services.
The $375,000 price tag provided much relief for Callander’s council, as the $1.4 million would put a large dent in the municipal coffer, possibly leading to “an 11 per cent increase” to ratepayers, councillor Darryl Vaillancourt feared during the December 15 meeting, when the contract was first discussed.
See related: Callander's mayor hopeful new numbers are more palatable
“I’m really glad that this happened,” councillor Jordy Carr said at the December 21 meeting, “because the 1.4 was a hit that we couldn’t take.”
Their plan was to budget around $700,000 for policing, and council figures they will still do that. If there is any left—and they imagine there should be, pending any unforeseen surge in police services—they will place that money in a reserve to help with future policing contracts.
Recently, Mayor Rob Noon mentioned he is happy to welcome the OPP to the community.
“I saw them in town, on January 1st,” he noted, “and I look forward to working with them to see how we can police our community to the fullest to the standard that we’re used to.”
Noon is “looking forward to developing a relationship” with the OPP “to deal with the policing needs of Callander” throughout 2022 and offered "a final thanks to the North Bay Police Officers for many years of great service."
#NorthBayOPP members started policing Callander at midnight January 1, 2022. They were joined by #NEROPP Chief Carson Pardy. Happy New Year! cb pic.twitter.com/bv5JfClxf1
— OPP North East Region (@OPP_NER) January 1, 2022
David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
