Policing Changes in Ontario
| Author | Colin Hayes |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X0107400405 |
| Published date | 01 November 2001 |
| Date | 01 November 2001 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
DR COLIN HAYES
POLICING CHANGES IN ONTARIO
The Progressive Conservative government of the Province of Ontario,
Canada's most populous province, has embarked upon a project that
will reduce the number of municipalities from over 900, while at the
same time reduce the number of police services.
This was not a new idea in Ontario. Over the years the number
of police services have been gradually reduced. According to the 1974
report, Task Force on Policing in Ontario, the number of police services
at that time stood at 162. Today that number has been reduced to 68
municipal police services, together with seven First Nations Police
Services. Over the last few years a number of municipalities have
disbanded their police services in favour of policing by the Ontario
Provincial Police. In some cases almost overnight a police service was
disbanded and replaced by the Ontario Provincial Police. In the first
takeovers the municipal police officers found themselves out of work.
In the late 1980s some officers were offered positions by the OPP. Now
the policy is that all officers are offered positions when the police
service is disbanded and the OPP take over policing duties.
According to the Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General in a
letter to the writer, ranks assigned to former Chiefs of Police have
ranged from constable, to Sergeant, Staff Sergeant and Inspector. This
has meant that supervisory officers and Chiefs of Police, some with
over 30 years of service, have been reduced to the rank of constable. In
one case a Chief of Police with 20 years in the rank was reduced to the
rank of constable, and posted 250 miles away from his home.
The battle began in earnest in November 1997, when the Ontario
Government announced changes to the Police Services Act that required
all municipalities to start paying for policing out of their own coffers,
effective 1 January 1998. Prior to that time many municipalities,
especially smaller communities and rural townships, had been supplied
with free policing by the Ontario Provincial Police, while more
urbanised municipalities, often with smaller populations paid for their
own police services, which was subsidised with a per capita provincial
government grant. This would now change. The per capita government
assistance would cease and the municipalities would pay the full cost
of policing. Coupled with this were new policing standards mandated
by the Police Services Act, that required police services to upgrade
facilities, training, equipment, personnel and standards. These changes
required increased expenditures on the part of municipalities that
operated their own police services. Many were not prepared to pay
large sums of money to do this, and thus risk being thrown out of office
at the next municipal election.
The Police Journal, Volume 74 (2001) 309
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