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2008 Federal Budget
OPP Needs 500 new officers: OPPA
BARRIE - The President of the Ontario Provincial Police Association (OPPA) says he is looking forward to working with the Provincial Government to ensure the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) gets its fair share of 2500 officers promised in this week's federal budget.
Karl Walsh said the Province has shown leadership in this issue and now
it is time to follow through to secure the federal funding being offered to
provinces so that the OPP staffing crisis can be addressed.
"The OPP can demonstrate it is short 500 officers on the front line. We
don't have a lot of detail right now on the Ottawa offer, but the announcement
for the funding is still an opportunity for the Premier to begin working on
his promise to deliver additional frontline officers when the Federal
Government makes it happen," Walsh said.
Staffing levels in the OPP have not kept pace with changing demographics,
and the number of calls for service. In the 2005 Provincial Auditor's Report,
most OPP detachments were found to be understaffed, given their overall
policing responsibilities, and that the number of calls for service had
increased 30.9 per cent. Walsh said frontline staffing shortages in the OPP
are common province-wide.
"The public believes safety is a priority, and our frontline members have
been providing the best service they can to the communities we serve, but our
members are stretched too thinly," Walsh said.
The Ontario Government recognized the situation in July 2007 when it
announced publicly that it was committed to working to get its fair share -
about 500 - of the officers provided by the proposed federal program.
The OPP has 163 local detachments and satellite offices and polices
communities from just south of James Bay in the north to Niagara Falls in the
south and from the Manitoba border to the Quebec border. It is responsible for
more than 922,000 square kilometres of land and approximately 110,400 square
kilometres of waterways.
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