The present municipal police-OPP arrangement may be the best choice. Citywide OPP might be. An expanded municipal service might be. The public record should show which one delivers the required service at the best long-term value.

Kawartha Lakes has an unusual policing structure. The Kawartha Lakes Police Service (KLPS) serves Lindsay and Ops. The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) serves the rest of the municipality.

The arrangement may provide excellent value. We could find no current public, like-for-like business case demonstrating that it does.

At more than $20 million a year in combined policing costs, the structure is too important to continue indefinitely simply because it already exists.

Built in 1996 by the Town of Lindsay, the Kawartha Lakes Police Service building no longer meets current operational needs. A new $88,000 expansion study budgeted for this year paves the way for a projected $10.3 million future facility expansion, which was originally outlined in a 2025 development charges study. Development charges are upfront infrastructure fees paid by builders to cities, which are then passed on to buyers and renters as higher housing costs.
Built in 1996 by the Town of Lindsay, the Kawartha Lakes Police Service building no longer meets current operational needs. A new $88,000 expansion study budgeted for this year paves the way for a projected $10.3 million future facility expansion, which was originally outlined in a 2025 development charges study. Development charges are upfront infrastructure fees paid by builders to cities, which are then passed on to buyers and renters as higher housing costs.

There are three models worth costing

Kawartha Lakes does not face a simple choice between keeping the present arrangement and moving to OPP. There are at least three credible models: keep KLPS and OPP as they are; move to citywide OPP; or expand municipal policing citywide through KLPS or a successor service.

A credible business case should compare all three. Each should be required to meet the same service standards for front-line coverage, response performance, investigations, community policing, specialized services and other capabilities residents expect.

Only then should the costs be compared - and those costs must include more than annual police budgets.

Do not compare two budget totals

Kawartha Lakes reported combined policing costs of $21.7 million in 2025. Its 2025 OPP billing statement was about $9.93 million after adjustment. The 2026 KLPS budget was about $13.68 million.

Those numbers cover different territories, workloads, years and responsibilities. Putting them side by side does not tell residents which service is cheaper.

A real comparison must first define the service: How many front-line officers? What response expectations? What investigative capacity? What community programs? What specialized services? What level of local governance? Then cost each model against those same assumptions.

Capital can change the answer

Northumberland County's policing review is instructive because it showed how facilities can reshape the business case. StrategyCorp included a proposed $34.4-million Cobourg police facility in the municipal-service scenario. Avoided capital costs became part of the case for OPP.

Kawartha Lakes has its own capital questions. The 2025 Development Charges Background Study includes a $10.3-million expansion of the existing police headquarters planned for 2029 under the present service framework.

A citywide municipal service would require a detailed capital plan. Would Lindsay headquarters be enough? Would northern operational space be needed? How many additional vehicles? What evidence and property facilities? What radio coverage? What information technology and dispatch upgrades?

Those costs could be substantial. They must be calculated, not guessed.

KLPS provides 911 dispatch for Kawartha Lakes Fire Rescue using a network of radio repeaters, including this Bethany location serving Ward 8. Meanwhile, departments in Northumberland and Peterborough counties contract their dispatch and communications through the Peterborough Fire Department. Image provided by Randy Neals.
KLPS provides 911 dispatch for Kawartha Lakes Fire Rescue using a network of radio repeaters, including this Bethany location serving Ward 8. Meanwhile, departments in Northumberland and Peterborough counties contract their dispatch and communications through the Peterborough Fire Department. Image provided by Randy Neals.

Communications deserve special attention

KLPS already performs an important citywide function. Its communications centre is the primary answering point for all 911 calls in Kawartha Lakes and also dispatches police and fire.

That means it would be wrong to assume a citywide municipal police service starts with no communications infrastructure. It would be equally wrong to assume the existing system can automatically support police patrol across more than 3,000 square kilometres.

A business case should determine the actual cost of police-grade field coverage, redundancy, radios, backhaul, towers or repeaters if required, and dispatch capacity.

The same discipline applies to facilities. OPP once maintained a Coboconk satellite office and later closed it. That history shows why a northern detachment should not be assumed necessary - or unnecessary - without a deployment analysis tied to the service standard.

 Built in 2015 by the Province of Ontario, the Kawartha Lakes OPP Detachment in Lindsay came at no direct cost to local taxpayers. The Province funds all capital costs for the OPP, including the $9 million cost of this 11-year-old facility next to the Ontario government building and Lindsay courthouse. Image from Infrastructure Ontario.
 Built in 2015 by the Province of Ontario, the Kawartha Lakes OPP Detachment in Lindsay came at no direct cost to local taxpayers. The Province funds all capital costs for the OPP, including the $9 million cost of this 11-year-old facility next to the Ontario government building and Lindsay courthouse. Image from Infrastructure Ontario.

OPP has risks too

Citywide OPP would not make policing costs disappear. Transition could involve severance, pensions, assets, facilities and collective agreements. Locally valued services might require enhancements purchased by the municipality.

OPP also carries a different cost risk: important drivers are set provincially. Municipalities can face increases arising from provincial bargaining and the billing model rather than local decisions.

So this is not an argument that OPP must be cheaper. Nor is it an argument that municipal policing must be better. It is an argument against choosing without calculating.

Define local control

KLPS supporters reasonably value local knowledge and local governance. Those advantages should be defined precisely. Which services or programs would residents lose under OPP? Which response or investigative capabilities are distinct? What would it cost to preserve them?

Then reverse the question. Which provincial capabilities would an expanded municipal service have to reproduce, contract for or access through agreements? Put numbers beside the differences.

ELECTION QUESTION

Will you require an independent long-term business case comparing the current KLPS-OPP structure, citywide OPP and citywide municipal policing using identical service assumptions and full capital and life-cycle costs?

Any of the three models might win. The unacceptable answer is not one model or another. It is that no current public, like-for-like calculation exists.

The Town of Lindsay Police Department building from 1971 to 1996, presently the home of the Kawartha Lakes Paramedic Service. in 1968 Lindsay Town Council allocated $400,000 to build the facility. From the Lindsay Library Archive.
The Town of Lindsay Police Department building from 1971 to 1996, presently the home of the Kawartha Lakes Paramedic Service. in 1968 Lindsay Town Council allocated $400,000 to build the facility. From the Lindsay Library Archive.