North Bay council votes no to OPP switch, Espanola rejects referendum on local police

Councils in two northern Ontario communities voted Tuesday night on the contentious question of dropping their local police force in favour of the OPP.

North Bay council voted for a second time and withoutdebate to notget a cost estimate on how much Ontario Provincial Police would charge to protect the city.

Council voted against the idea few weeks ago, but Coun. Mark King asked for a vote of reconsideration, which lost 4-3, with three councillorsdeclaring a conflict of interest.

Espanola town council was also discussing a possible switch to the OPP, with Mayor Ron Pichesuggesting it be put to the voters this October in some type of referendum.

"I think it's a question of democracy to allow them to have that choice and we can't just ignore that," he told town council Tuesday night.

But all of the Espanolatown councillorsdisagreed with him, arguing that council knows more about the issue than the public.

"I think it's only fair to theratepayersthat the people who have all the information make the decision, with true facts," said Coun. Ron Duplessis.

Coun. Robert Yocomwarned that a vote on policing would only divide the town.

"It's always divisive.There's misinformation, misunderstanding, rumours, conjecture and even twisting of facts and I've watched that go on and have had to disprove some of these so-called facts people were quoting," he argued.

West Nipissing is the most recent northern Ontario town to vote to drop its local police force in favour of the OPP.

It voted in December to make the switch, despite $8 million in required repairs to bring the police station up to OPP standards.

That changing of the guard, anticipated to save money in the long run, is expected to happen later this year.