A former mayor of Stirling-Rawdon wishes council would have changed over to OPP policing much sooner than it did.
It was the council led by Rodney Cooney that after much discussion and controversy voted to go with the OPP and disband the long-established municipal police service in 2018.
“2017 which was our last official budget before switching to OPP in 2018 and policing was $1.86 million and this year it’s $544,000.”
Cooney says in the nine years between 2009 and 2017, Stirling-Rawdon taxpayers were paying as much as one million dollars a year more for policing than similar neighbouring communities such as Marmora and Lake and Centre Hastings which were serviced the OPP.
Cooney said the millions of dollars that went to policing could have been used for infrastructure, to lower debt, or to hold the line on taxes.
