By: Sylene Argent, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Essex Free Press
Members of the Essex County OPP Detachment Board – North (Lakeshore, Essex, Tecumseh) approved the 2025 Draft Budget at $114,870 at a special meeting hosted on Monday.
The Detachment Board will send a recommendation to the three member municipalities to consider approval of the budget during their municipal budget deliberations. The Board Chairperson, or alternate, will present the 2025 Draft Board Budget to each municipal Councils when each municipal budget is tabled.
Tecumseh CAO Margaret Misek-Evans provided a breakdown of the Essex County OPP Detachment Board – North Budget. Of the $114,870 needed to operate the Board in 2025, $77,849 is set aside for annual wages and benefits. This included a two-percent cost living allowance.
Memberships came in nearly double than what was expected in June. The Ontario Association of Police Service Boards (OAPSB) and Zone 6 for 2025 had fees of $7,269 plus tax and $300, respectively.
The budget also outlines professional development expenses for 2025 are based on five members and one Municipal Liaison attending the annual OAPSB conference and three members attending two Zone 6 meetings.
Misek-Evans also highlighted the insurance for the Board is based on the annual cost of $3,880, plus allowance for inflation.
The overall budget came in around $9,300 over the June annual estimate for Board operations, with the overage mainly due to wages & benefits and the memberships, Misek-Evans explained.
The three member municipalities split the cost of the 2025 Budget, with Essex and Lakeshore to each contribute $38,109.67 and Tecumseh $38,650.67.
Mayor Sherry Bondy spoke of a vacancy on the Windsor Essex Regional Community Safety and Well-Being Plan Committee, which is implementing the action items created through a region-wide document. She believed the Chairperson of the Essex County OPP Detachment Board – North and the South Boards should get involved with the committee.
So did Tecumseh Mayor Gary McNamara. The Board will send a letter to the Windsor Essex Regional Community Safety and Well-Being Plan Committee, inquiring about the vacancy and if it would be fitting for the Chairperson of the Essex County OPP Detachment Board and the South Board would be fitting.
The letter will also be sent to the South Board, which includes Kingsville, Leamington, and Caldwell First Nation, to bring the idea forward to its reps. In November of 2021, members of the previous Term of Essex County Council approved the final report for the Windsor Essex Regional Community Safety and Well-Being Plan for submission to the Solicitor General. It also voted in favour of Essex County Council championing the Plan, recognizing its implementation necessitates active engagement and meaningful participation of key sectors, residents, and communities across the region.
The plan was previously adopted by all regional municipalities, the County of Essex, and the City of Windsor because, as of January 1, 2019, the Safer Ontario Act, 2018 required municipalities to prepare and adopt community safety and well-being plans in partnership with a multi-sectoral advisory committee. The local plan had to be submitted and endorsed by City and County Councils by December 31, 2021.