Orangeville's newly elected council got down to business last night, voting unanimously to ask the Ontario Provincial Police for a cost estimate to police the town.
“We need to have a more open debate, said mayor Sandy Brown. “I would like to see all sides of this examined one more time.”
The new mayor says the previous council missed an opportunity to save millions of dollars when they decided to stick with the Orangeville Police Service, rather than having the OPP police the town.
“Let’s say over the next 13 years the potential savings for the town of Orangeville is 40 million dollars. There is no other way we could find those kinds of windfall savings on our tax and budget here,” says Brown.
No one from the Orangeville Police Service would comment on the council's decision to revisit the costing issue.
The OPP normally provides a costing free of charge.
The town council may still consider hiring a consultant at a later date to help them review the numbers and level of service.
“I think we are going to see an equivalent service level and a huge savings under OPP,” said the mayor, “and I think we owe it to the taxpayers to go through that process one more time.”
Council’s decision last night is only the first step in a long process and the mayor hopes some numbers will be on the table by the summer when he expects the real debate to begin.
