Adam Prudhomme
Beaver Staff
Greater Napanee council instructed chief administrative officer Ray Callery to keep pushing forward in his efforts to determine whether or not OPP services could be area rated.
Those instructions came during last Tuesday’s meeting in an effort to clarify some confusion that had come up during Callery’s report last month.
He had asked council to be more clear in its instructions following a decision made at a special taxation meeting held in August 2016. In particular, it was the part of Max Kaiser’s motion which stated “That we not leave the OPP issue alone, such that we seek dialogue with the OPP and/or the province to find a clear and final decision as to whether or not the “calls for service” for the OPP can be area-rated within a given municipality” that was causing the ambiguity.
Town staff has already begun gathering information from fellow municipalities, Kaiser said, but he wanted to check with council as to whether or not they should contact the province in an effort to see whether or not OPP services could be area rated.
“Staff have done nothing but research, other than talk to colleagues,” said Kaiser. “We have not approached the province and staff would never represent ourselves to the province without this council’s knowledge.”
In discussing the matter around the table at a regular meeting, it appeared council members were unsure themselves as to whether the original motion included talking to the province rather than just the OPP.
“We did agree on it,” said deputy mayor Marg Isbester, noting that everyone voted for it save for councillor Shaune Lucas. “I believe that there is a disagreement as to the exact course of action taken. I keep hearing things about looking for an order through the Ministry of Justice and so on. That was certainly not my way of thinking of it when the resolution was put before us. It said there would be dialogue, not with the OPP because they can’t decide on it.
“I was at all those meetings and certainly the OPP spoke to the fact that they were delivering the same level of service to all areas. I know as a past rural dweller that I had a certain level of expectation of what my level of service would be because of where I lived. What we need to get this done is to find out if there is a municipality that is exactly the same as we are that is area rated without spending thousands of dollars going into it and come back in this term.”
Kaiser stood by his motion from last year, stating he simply moved to find out if it could be area rated, not how it could be.
“If the answer is it can be done through this method or that, that’s still the answer to the question,” said Kaiser. “If it can be done, but requires this, then the question is do we want to do it or not. The question simply was ‘Can it be done?’ And I think it’s very open ended as to which measure can allow it to be done.”
Councillor Carol Harvey said she understood it to mean dialogue would only take place with the OPP.
“I would have never voted for it if I thought it implied anything other than a dialogue with the OPP whether or not we could area rate calls for service,” said Harvey. “I knew that the OPP would say no because that’s what was said to us in this council chamber many times.”
Councillors discussed putting forth another motion but ultimately decided to simply instruct Kaiser and staff to continue to compile their research as they see fit and to present their findings to council at a later date.
Council, which just recently entered it’s fourth year of the four year term, has stated previously they want to have an answer as to whether or not the OPP could be area rated by the end of the term.
The question was at the core of the taxation review process earlier in the term as council looked to strike a fair balance between the tax rate of “urban” residents compared to “rural” ones.