Local municipalities won’t be approving their 2025 policing budgets until later in the year but the budget for the board of governors for OPP policing in several Prescott-Russell municipalities is up for approval now.
Councils for both the Town of Hawkesbury and East Hawkesbury Township have approved the proposed 2025 budget for the Hawkesbury OPP Detachment Board. Approval is still pending from the councils for Champlain Township, Alfred-Plantagenet Township, and The Nation Municipality.
The community board was set up under the guidelines of the Ontario Community Safety and Policing Act. The board includes representatives for five municipalities and also representatives for the OPP and other interest groups.
Hawkesbury and the townships of East Hawkesbury, Champlain and Alfred-Plantagenet are all under the Hawkesbury OPP detachment’s jurisdiction. Part of The Nation Municipality is covered by the Hawkesbury detachment and another part by the Russell OPP detachment.
The 2025 Hawkesbury OPP Detachment Board budget includes $173,319 in total revenue from various provincial policing and community safety grant programs. Projected operating expenses for the board for 2025 are $224,819. That leaves $51,500 in shared expenses for the five municipalities to cover through their own 2025 budget plans. The shares for each member municipality are calculated based on the total number of households and occupied commercial and industrial properties within their areas that are under the Hawkesbury OPP detachment’s jurisdiction.