Premier Kathleen Wynne insisted local municipalities will have to make their own call on whether stun guns are for them after the province expanded permissions for police services to use conducted energy weapons, or CEWs.

"At this stage it's a permissive move, we're allowing tools to be available to front line officers. So it becomes then an issue of setting priorities," Wynne told reporters Wednesday at Queen's Park. Wynne added she thinks improved training will be critical for expanded use of the weapons.

But for some northern and rural mayors, stun guns aren’t a priority - they're yet another example of the province saddling them with more costs without giving them meaningful input in the process. In particular, northern mayors whose towns rely on the OPP say they're worried the force will simply adopt the new weapons and leave them holding the bill.

Peter Politis, mayor of the town of Cochrane in northeast Ontario, says towns are struggling "in a model that's broken. The entire model is in question, the legislation, the regulation, the policies, none of its working."

Politis says the added costs of new equipment "is definitely a driver" his town is going to have to reckon with, but notes 85 per cent of cost of policing is simply the labour costs.

Those costs—driven by a provincial arbitration process that's come under intense scrutiny in recent years—have tripled for Cochrane in the last decade. Politis estimates policing costs $819 for every household, or about half of the average tax bill.

The Association of Municipalities of Ontario has warned police salaries are growing twice as quickly as the rest of the public sector, and police arbitration cases are imposing inappropriate costs on municipalities by awarding police wage increases based on the cost of living in larger cities such as Toronto.

AMO has also warned coming changes to municipal billing for the OPP could impose even larger costs on municipalities than they're already carrying.

In this context, Politis says stun guns are just one more example of Queen's Park saddling municipalities with costs that should be properly borne by the province.

"It's easy for the minister to stand in front of the camera and say we're going to Tasers," says Politis, "but she's not paying the full portion of the bill."

Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Madelleine Meilleur's office yesterday said the OPP would develop an implementation plan for the adoption of CEWs, and local consultations were expected to play a role.

Penetanguishene Mayor Gerry Marshall says "in some ways this could be considered a download from the province," a characterization Politis agreed with.

Marshall adds the cost of stun guns may be small in comparison to overall policing costs, but warned against what he called "the creep situation".

"You've got your officers, then we get a direction from the provincial government that results in us spending a thousand dollars here, a thousand dollars there," Marshall says.

The imposition of the new costs could also rub some rural mayors the wrong way because for some it's an issue nobody but the police have been clamoring for.

"From a small-town perspective, it's a big town issue," Marshall said.

No help for municipalities after “permissive” change on stun guns: Wynne

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