OPP COSTING: CLARIFICATION OF THE CANDIDATES’ POSITIONS The only candidates, so far, who have pledged to apply for an OPP cost for policing services, are the candidates whom I endorse: Ron Piche for Mayor and Bill Foster, Bob Yocum, Ray Dufour, Ron Duplessis, Heather Malott, and Rob Sinclair for Council. These candidates have pledged to seek an OPP cost for service contract followed by an open, fact-based debate so that all the information is at our disposal to make an informed decision. The election of the candidates whom I endorse will not automatically result in disbandment rather, the decision to disband or not to disband would be the responsibility of the voters in a binding referendum. The financial aspect of OPP policing seems to indicate a substantial benefit for our community and that is a very valid reason to explore this issue further. The exact figure on how much can be saved, if any, will only be learned through a formal OPP proposal and it is premature to come to any conclusions. The important thing is to elect a council which will give the voters an opportunity to decide this issue. Bill Foster’s Municipal Policing Study and the subsequent updates were never intended to be a completely accurate to the penny savings rather, Foster’s in-depth research was meant to help motivate all politicians to explore this issue by applying for a formal OPP Policing contract. At this point, we do not know the full picture and attempts by some to put the kibosh to a proposal that does not exist suggests a predisposition to keeping the OPP out of Espanola at all costs. It is very telling that some supporters of our status quo policing, many of whom sit on council, do not even want to know, and they do not want us to know, if an OPP Policing contract might benefit our town. This suggests to me that the supporters of our status quo policing arrangement fear what an OPP contract might look like for our community…..they fear that things might look just a bit too tempting to ignore so the best way for the EPS supporters to continue to get their way is to try to keep us all ignorant so that we will never know exactly what OPP policing would cost us and what the service would be like. When anyone tells me not to look over that next hill……I want to look over that next hill more than ever.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 22:32:40 +0000
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