WHEREAS Ontario municipalities are required to maintain a police service or detachment board; and WHEREAS policing is a provincially legislated responsibility,

WHEREAS Ontario municipalities are required to maintain a police service or detachment board; and WHEREAS policing is a provincially legislated responsibility, yet municipalities are bearing the brunt of rising costs to implement provincial mandates; WHEREAS the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) has asserted that the fiscal framework enabling municipalities provided critical policing and public safety services is broken, and AMO requests an urgent update of the provincial-municipal fiscal relationship; WHEREAS double digit increases in municipal annual Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) budgets are unsustainable, especially as Ontario municipal police services tackle provincial responsibilities such as mental health, addictions, and homelessness challenges that place police resources under enormous financial strain; WHEREAS municipalities across Ontario are experiencing increased police operating and capital costs directly related to new compliance and operational standards required under the Community Safety and Policing Act, 2019 (the Act); WHEREAS the costs of other measures such as providing provincial court security are increasing and are not part of providing core, adequate and effective municipal policing; and WHEREAS rural municipalities are especially negatively impacted by these developments; NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Council of the County of Prince Edward (Council) requests that the Province provide financial assistance to municipalities to offset all additional costs directly and demonstrably incurred as a result of compliance with the Act and not general increases to police budgets; and THAT Council urges the Province of Ontario to expeditiously review and reform its current police grant programs to ensure a more equitable distribution of funding to municipalities, so that communities with changing populations and expanding service demands receive fair and sustainable provincial support; and THAT this resolution of Council be forwa