The Town of Amherstburg will need to find a solution to their policing issue on their own.
Essex County Council met earlier this week where a notice of motion was presented and discussed into having administration look into the cost of having a third-party consultant look into how much regional policing would be. The motion was opposed 10-3.
Options had been provided to County Council to look into a regional policing model, or to join together as one central command with OPP, however majority of the mayors and deputy mayors stated they are satisfied with the current policing in their municipalities.
Amherstburg's deputy mayor Chris Gibb says the Town will now have to look at other options which include reaching out to Windsor to renegotiate at a different price point, talk with the Town of LaSalle to join forces, look into pricing for OPP, or to implement their own police service.
Gibb says the Town is on their own with this issue.
"At this point, the County Council has spoken, they're not interested in looking into a regional service. So in Amherstburg we still have four very viable options that we're going to pursue."
He says talks will continue with Windsor and LaSalle while the Town looks at other options.
"Town council officially asking the province for pricing to bring OPP service to Amherstburg. We've taken that step as well. And then we're also working on an order of magnitude costing with re-establishing our own town police service. That's absolutely one of the options on the table."
He says he's not leaning one way or another when it comes to their options.
"An OPP costing is most likely the least expensive option. And probably if we were to go with a town police service, or even merging with LaSalle, that may turn out to be the most expensive option. But it's not just about the cost, it's also about the level of service."
The city has been providing policing to the town since January 2019 after the Amherstburg council voted to approve a 20-year contract with the city and disband the former town police service.
The current agreement for policing between the City of Windsor and the Town of Amherstburg will expire on December 31, 2028.