Dryden’s OPP costs going down

It’s going to cost Dryden almost $1.5 million less to police the city this year.

An initial OPP costing has been released and it’s $4.184 million.

Mayor Jack Harrison says this is much the same cost they were expecting when they switched over from the Dryden Police Service.

“This is basically the number that was predicted by the last staff and council,” Harrison reflected during debate on the city’s draft budget for 2026.

“As we go through the transition, build up the OPP, and we go back to the billing model, essentially this is the same police costs we had in 2021.”

Chief Administrative Officer Roger Nesbitt says this isn’t reflected in the costs next year, but they’ve seen a reduction in the number of calls for service in the past year.

“Our Calls for Service are trending downwards…a great sign. That should equate to, I would like to say, lower costs in the future, but as the mayor says, there are inflationary pressures.”

City treasurer Kim Junko says they had hoped their OPP costs would be lower, with a bigger discount, but that did not happen.

The city last year spent $5.653 million on OPP service.