Frustrated councillors hope for provincial help

Dealing with rising OPP costs limits their scope for budget action

Treasurer Christina Beaushaw and Planner Cameron Law at today’s meeting.

Trent Hills councillors were pretty calm and low-key on Tuesday as they listened to Treasurer Christina Beaushaw outline the town’s financial situation for 2025.

Until she got to the topic of the surprising and skyrocketing cost of the Ontario Provincial Police, when each councillor jumped in to explain just how frustrated and upset they were.

Councillor Rick English said this was the tenth budget he’s overseen since joining council and this is the toughest because the town has so little leeway to alter spending.

Councillor Dennis Savery called the OPP hike shocking. He noted that more than 60 per cent of Trent Hills’ residents are seniors and suggested it may be time for tough choices about what services the municipality provides.

“If we continue at 8 per cent increases every year, plus the county and education, people won’t be able to afford to live here,” he said.

Northumberland County council is looking at a draft budget for 2025 with an increase of 9.7 per cent. It has asked staff to suggest ways to cut that increase to 6.5 per cent.

Last summer, the province negotiated a new union contract that will increase wages over the next two years to make OPP officers the best paid in the province. But the 330 municipalities that pay those salaries when they contract for local police services were not involved in the talks. Over the past two months those municipalities have been getting their 2025 invoices from the OPP and some have seen increases of more than 35 per cent.

For Trent Hills, the increase is 17.4 per cent, or $442,0000, to $3 million, which represents a 2.7 per cent tax hike for local property owners.

The draft budget presented by Beaushaw suggested an 8.39 per cent increase in the levy, or $1.4 million, held to that level in part by using $100,000 from reserves to cover part of the OPP’s cost.

Beaushaw, who was battling a cold and wearing a mask, said that left the town’s police reserve fund, built up over the past few years in recognition that costs might jump, at $185,000.

Deputy Mayor Mike Metcalf suggested council should consider using another $100,000 of that reserve to hold down the 2025 increase.

Beaushaw noted that a 1 per cent change in the levy was about $163,000.

Metcalf said the town had received a letter on Oct. 30 from MPP David Piccini promising some aid from the province but hadn’t heard from him since. “Are we just sitting and waiting?”

“I’ve heard crickets,” said Mayor Bob Crate.

“It’s frustrating because it is something that we had no control over,” Crate said in an interview after the meeting. “It’s nice that they say they are going to try to help us, but it’s taking a long time.”

During the meeting, I emailed Piccini, and he quickly replied that he was “still working on it with the solicitor general” and would have more information to share soon. That’s what the solicitor general’s office told me more than two weeks ago. The hike has become a major media issue across the province and with Premier Doug Ford determined to hold an early election it seems some help should be coming.

Beaushaw, who joined the town in October, thanked her predecessor Valerie Nesbitt, who retired in September, for all the work she did preparing the 2025 budget before she left.

One item not mentioned in the budget is repairs needed to water pipes and the pavement on Tanner Road. The pipes have broken several times, and it’s estimated it will cost almost $3 million to fix them and rebuild the road, said Chief Administrative Officer Lynn Phillips.

Crate insisted the project is at the top of the town’s capital works list but can only be done with the help of provincial grants. He said the town hopes a new grant window will open soon.

One item sparking discussion was the parks and recreation department’s request to spend $140,000 on a new parks master plan. Community Services Director Peter Burnett noted that the plan had been in the draft 2024 budget but was removed to cut spending. He said the current plan was done in 2003 and needs to be updated.

Councillor Rob Pope said that an updated plan is needed so the municipality can increase the $1,000 fee it now charges on each lot severance for park services.

Planning Director Jim Peters pointed out that several subdivisions are moving ahead in the town and they are setting aside land and money for parks, so an updated plan is needed to coordinate those services.

Burnett said it would take a year to draft a new plan and obtain public input. Peters suggested that $22,000 could be shifted from the planning department’s reserve funds to help pay for the parks plan.

Each year the town sets aside money in reserves for expenses it knows are coming and it is then able to pay those expenses in full or part when they occur. For example, for many years it has put $500,000 a year into a recreation services fund. That money was used to pay for the Hastings Field House and now is being used to finance the $6.4 million borrowed to build the Sunny Life Wellness & Recreation Centre.

“I keep hearing from people that their taxes are going to go up to pay for the Sunny Life Centre,” English said in an interview. “But they won’t, because we have been budgeting that $500,000 for years and now we’re using it to pay for the centre.”

The impact of the recreation centre on the 2025 budget is unclear. It is expected that revenue will increase over what the old arena generated, but so will expenses as the town pays higher operating costs and subsidizes the YMCA’s operations as its local membership grows.

Councillors were told there is $125,000 in a reserve allocated to unlicensed vehicles. They realized that money could be directed toward the $260,000 cost of a new sidewalk clearing machine. The new machine will be used in Campbellford and the current Campbellford unit sent to Hastings to replace one from 2008.

You can find the draft 2025 budget on the town’s website here. There is also a form where you can comment. Any comments received by Dec. 3 will be included in the agenda for the Dec. 10 council meeting which will look at a revised budget.

There was a full house at the meeting with all department heads on hand to answer questions.

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