Leamington looking for police contract

By Mark Ribble

LEAMINGTON — After almost a year without a policing contract, Leamington Council is looking to reconnect with the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) regarding policing within the municipality.

A recommendation was brought to council at the February 22 meeting, advising council to send a notice to the Solicitor General that they’d like to open talks about a possible new contract with the OPP.

The same council voted in 2019 to terminate the contract with the OPP at the time, giving the required one-year notice to the Solicitor General’s office to terminate the contract.

The OPP continue to police the municipality without a contract, as per Section 5.1 of the Police Services Act.

An RFP issued in September 2020 produced two proposals from neighbouring police departments. Windsor Police Service and Chatham-Kent Police both submitted proposals, but the costs were too prohibitive for Leamington to accept.

It is hoped that the OPP will sit down and discuss the municipality’s enhancement needs before a contract can be signed.

The Community Safety and Policing Act, which was supposed to come into effect in 2021, has been stalled and yet to be implemented, allowing Leamington to take advantage of that and enter a contract with the Solicitor General for further OPP policing.

Leamington’s 2022 budget allows for about $6 million in policing costs with the OPP.

Administration explained that the municipality cannot access certain grants and enhancement through the province without a contract with OPP.

Councillor Paul Tiessen expressed concern that the issues still need to be fixed.

“What are some of the enhancements? What’s considered adequate and effective policing?” he asked. “These are all questions I’d like to see answered by upper levels of the OPP in a public forum.”

Mayor Hilda MacDonald said that she has had discussions with the regional commander of the West Region OPP and can ask if they would be willing to sit down with the entire council and discuss what council saw as shortcomings with the previous contract.

“We want to have confidence that what we’re asking is being answered,” she said.

Council voted to accept the recommendation and allow administration to submit notice to the office of the Governor General regarding entering into a new contract for OPP policing in Leamington.

Meanwhile, CAO Peter Neufeld was confident that meetings with OPP upper levels could resume and go hand-inhand with contract negotiations.