A proposal to see if the city could save money by replacing the city's police force with the OPP is, according to the councillor who was seeking the review, off the table for now.
There is presently a provincial moratorium on municipalities converting to OPP service, but Mac Bain says when it ended the plan was to have city council discuss the possibility of having the OPP look at and give a costing for their service.
Sarnia went through the process two years ago says Bain and the saving would have been a million dollars annually. But Sarnia decided to continue on having their own police force.
"I believe I had support three months ago, but at present I don't believe I have enough council support to bring it forward. There's no point bringing something forward if it is going to be defeated," Bain told BayToday.
The veteran councillor took a straw poll of fellow councillors a few weeks ago and felt he had the support, but that was eroded by remarks on social media that swayed some colleagues.
That, and the feeling that the new police chief Shawn Devine should be given a chance to see what he can do to contain costs.
"There's optimism that the new chief will have a different opinion than the previous chief, and that the police force is going to be something different moving forward. There were more things on the table than ever before during the budget process and they had a serious look at all of their operations and had really thoughtful discussions."
But it's not off the table completely.
Councillor Mike Anthony says the current cost of the department is "unsustainable."
"The community's ability to pay and keep up with our taxes is getting tougher and tougher. I made it very clear to the police I don't want to see front line officers cut or safety compromised but there's got to be efficiencies we can find."
Anthony points to an Association of Municipalities of Ontario study on policing costs.
"They say that policing costs have been triple the rate of inflation since 2002. And if you look at our local police costs they've gone from 11 and a half million to 17 and a half million in a decade. So in 2014 14 cents out of every tax dollar went to policing. In 2015 15 cents, so it rose a cent.
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"I'm concerned it's becoming unsustainable, said Anthony."
The mayor is so concerned about the issue the felt compelled to issue a news release on the subject.
"Al McDonald wants to inform the public that City Council is not looking at an alternative to the North Bay Police Service for policing in the City of North Bay, although any North Bay City Councillor can and has every right to bring a motion forward, if he or she chooses.," the release stated.
