The transition to the OPP in West Nipissing is still a highly contested issue.
The majority of council may have agreed to sign on with the Ontario Provincial Police, but that hasn’t stopped the questions.
The latest debate involves the closure of the OPP detachments in Warren and Noelville and moving those offices to the new OPP building headquarters that will be in West Nipissing.
The question from council was who will pay for those other detachments to be in West Nipissing after some began considering would West Nipissing foot this extra bill.
News about the Warren and Noelville detachments was raised by councillor Denis Senecal who acquired the information.
Mayor Joanne Savage asked Senecal how he got the information because council did not get a memo on this matter.
Senecal would not divulge the source of the information.
Jay Barbeau, the municipality’s CAO, told council he had a working memo discussing what the OPP were doing operationally with another detachment.
Barbeau expressed concern that his memo was being used for another purpose.
Savage said with the Warren and Noelville offices moving to the West Nipissing OPP building, the question was if the government was paying for this, then why would it not fully pay West Nipissing’s share of the building.
Councillor Ivon Duhaime had the same concern and question.
Duhaime asked if the municipality’s neighbours were moving into its new building and the province was picking up the tab, then why wasn’t the province doing the same for West Nipissing.
However, councillor Jeremy Seguin pointed out the working email was speculative and contained inferences.
Seguin said nothing he read in the document was definitive and added the information should not have seen the light of day.
He also said the debate about Noelville and Warren merging was not a debate for West Nipissing council but rather it was an OPP issue.
Barbeau was able to put the debate to rest when he told the elected officials West Nipissing would not be subsidizing the other nearby municipalities with their OPP costs.
Barbeau said he had discussed the matter with the OPP and they assured him this would not be happening.
