No word on how court cash will be spent

No word on how court cash will be spent

Regional News

Province assuming court security costs
By: Joe Fantauzzi

While about $7 million would be saved if the province takes back court security costs, as it has promised to do, what the region would do with that money is unknown.

The province announced last week it will upload court costs and social assistance benefits from municipalities. Court guarding costs will begin to be uploaded beginning in 2012 and the province plans to assume the full costs of court security by 2018.

Since 1990, your regional tax dollars have paid for security at the York Region courts.

The province acknowledged last week an increasing emphasis on security has driven costs up.

Court security costs, over which the region has no control, have escalated and have become an “expensive proposition”, York Region chairperson Bill Fisch said Thursday, noting he is happy with the announcement.

But the money York spends on court security will not be accessible for a number of years. Mr. Fisch said, adding he wouldn’t speculate on how those funds would be used.

The money will be used in “an appropriate way”, he said.

In York Region, 55 court officers provide security at a cost of $4.7 million a year in wages and benefits, according to York Regional Police Chief Armand La Barge.

The region also covers $2.1 million in indirect costs for related administration, he added.

That means you are paying $6.98 million for court security, which is about 3.6 per cent of the service’s $196-million operating budget this year, according to Chief La Barge.

While pleased with the announcement, he added he had hoped to see something much sooner than 2012.

“I had hoped for a non-phased in approach,” he said in an e-mail.

The Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police has pushed the province to take back the costs of court security and prisoner transportation since at least 2000, he said.

In a resolution, the chiefs declared the use of police personnel for non-core police functions as constituting an “ineffective use of police resources” and using police officers to provide court security and prisoner transportation was “having a significant negative impact on available front line police resources”.

The $7 million being spent annually on court security by York Region could have been used for core policing responsibilities, such as crime prevention and law enforcement, Chief La Barge said.

It will ultimately be up to regional council to determine where the money goes and if it comes back to the police, York Police Services Board chairperson Danny Wheeler said.

“We need to do an analysis of the future needs, which is an ongoing process,” he said.

He also noted any benefits from the money are years away.

“There is no question about ownership — it is something that has to be done,” Mr. Wheeler said of court security.

“Until the province brings in the new program, that is where the funds have to go.”

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