Orillia’s surrounding townships will soon have more say in local policing initiatives.
The Orillia Police Services Board (OPSB) is set to be dissolved in favour of a new OPP detachment board that includes representatives from Orillia and the townships of Oro-Medonte, Severn and Ramara.
The 10-member board will include elected officials and community representatives from each municipality, as well as two provincial representatives appointed by the lieutenant governor in council.
The Orillia OPP detachment serves the City of Orillia and each of the three townships, and the current OPSB is responsible for ensuring an adequate level of policing in the city, as well as supporting education, community involvement, crime prevention programs, and more.
Under the new board, the surrounding townships will have the opportunity to help determine objectives and priorities for the Orillia OPP detachment, advise and monitor the performance of the detachment commander, and become eligible for provincial grants — such as funding for the RIDE program — among other opportunities.
The current board will be disbanded April 1, with the OPP detachment board forming on the same date, though a date for the new board’s first meeting has yet to be determined.
Following Wednesday’s OPSB meeting, board chair Ralph Cipolla said the move to a larger board is a “positive change.”
“I think it’ll enhance the safety and protection now that we have representation from Oro, Severn and Ramara. We may be able to accomplish a lot more with the opioids, the traffic and everything else. I think that it well help substantially to create safer communities for all of us,” he told OrilliaMatters.
Cipolla expressed concern that the Orillia OPP detachment may be “spread out thin” under the new board structure, but he said he does not believe community safety will be affected.
The changes arrive following the Ontario government’s adoption of the Comprehensive Police Services Act (CSPA) in 2019, the legislative successor to the Police Services Act.
Under the previous act, municipalities with a Section 10 agreement had access to civilian governance — like the OPSB — but 178 of the 326 communities served by the OPP did not participate on a board.
City council initially supported the shift to a 10-member, four-municipality OPP detachment board in 2021, with the CSPA scheduled for proclamation in 2022, but the act will not come into force until April 1.
