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OpEd: Provincial election aside, it’s time to properly fund the Ontario Provincial Police
April 28, 2022

As a public safety analyst for Bell Media’s television and talk radio stations, I’ll always give my honest opinion on policing issues – including regarding OPP matters, when asked and if it’s within my police experience. Although I’d do anything to help my former police service, I will not insert myself into OPP matters in any way unless asked by the commissioner.

However, I continue to hear of troubling issues from former colleagues regarding critical OPP staffing challenges and feel an obligation to comment and express my concern.

I was the OPP commissioner, and deputy commissioner, etc. I know the drill. I’m confident that behind the scenes the current commissioner continues to quietly plead his case to the provincial government for more human resources, but he cannot go public with that pitch or there’ll be another staff vacancy in the OPP – his.



My comments are NOT a critique of Commissioner Carrique and his team. I’m sure the OPP would be at full strength if it was his call. And I totally appreciate the numerous competing financial priorities faced by the Ford government. None of this is easy. But something is going to break if not soon fixed and the people of Ontario and the men and women of the OPP will bear the brunt of the impact.


The OPP deliver frontline policing to a large chunk of Ontario’s municipalities. They also provide support in a variety of ways to municipal and First Nations police services on request – from the smallest to the largest. No one service can do it all and they all help each other, but as the largest and the one with the biggest footprint, much of that provision of support does fall to the OPP. That includes 24/7 uniform backup, forensics, detectives, emergency response, public order, specialty investigations and more. They are funded in part to do that by the taxpayers of Ontario; they do it with pride and do not seek reimbursement.

At the same time, they conduct traffic and marine patrols, enforcement and investigations, and search and rescue operations in OPP jurisdiction, to over a million square kilometers of geography. ALL of that is an expensive business, requiring vehicles, vessels, aircraft, fuel, equipment, buildings/infrastructure, uniforms, supplies and the most expensive resource, “people.”


Over the past several years, the OPP has been forced to leave hundreds of employee vacancies to meet government financial challenges. Although the OPP commissioner oversees the preparation of the OPP budget within general set guidelines, it is adjusted (most often trimmed) and submitted through the solicitor general and staff to the appropriate Ministry of Finance officials for consultation, adjustment and eventual approval by government.


The commissioner must be reasonable of course in terms of his budget request, and staffing numbers must be in keeping with municipal policing contract obligations; demonstrated workload; proposed new business lines (units); as well as anticipated supplies/services/technology numbers.



When government says cuts are required, the only area where that is generally feasible in any appreciable amount, is in salary dollars. That requires some staff vacancies not be filled, and the vast majority are police officer positions. Determining where those positions can be left open becomes the challenge. Some detachments, units and bureaus will feel the pain. The bigger the cut, the bigger impact it will have. Every commissioner under governments of all political stripes since 1909 has been faced with this process, however some financial times have been more fiscally demanding than others.

So how does this impact public safety?

In many cases, OPP policed municipalities and unincorporated areas will have less police officers to patrol and respond to calls for service. OPP officers will have less available back-up and relief to attend courses or vacation. Crimes and collisions will have less officers available to respond and investigate. Other police services won’t be able to count on the OPP for assistance with the same frequency, and in more remote areas of Ontario there is only the OPP available to assist.


Accordingly, I regularly hear from detachment officers all over Ontario that “nobody is working.”

Between ongoing vacancies, officers who can’t go on patrol because of various health issues being accommodated, officers calling in sick or off-duty on long-term medical leave, etc. they say, there are not enough people to handle the workload.


In one large OPP detachment, I was told that they often had less than four officers on duty during the past summer on days when they would once have had a minimum of a dozen working. That lead to calling in personnel on overtime, burnout for all, increased levels of stress and little ability to take time off.


Full-time OPP units like tactical or investigative teams will have fewer potential recruits to draw from within the OPP. How will they meet the increasing need to fight organized crime? Help other agencies? Stem the flow of handguns into Canada and get more illegal firearms off our streets? The math doesn’t work.


Think back to the various Freedom Convoy protests last February and how Ottawa Police needed outside police assistance. It took weeks for the OPP and RCMP to get sufficient resources in to assist. Not because they didn’t want to help. Not because there were insufficient laws. It was because both organizations are vastly understaffed and could not free up sufficient members and ship them long distances to help in a timely way.


The totality of this scenario is untenable. Adequate and effective policing cannot be sustained in OPP jurisdiction; other police services – including Indigenous police services and their communities – will continue to be negatively impacted and it is not in the best interests of OPP employee well-being and in particular their emotional health to let it continue. In addition, this situation will undoubtedly impact OPP morale and could lead to professionalism and productivity challenges.


Anything less than committed, professional and dedicated police officers undoubtedly hurt public trust, and police services cannot survive without community and recruit pool trust.


The premier has recently stated that improving police funding is a priority for his government, which is wonderful. I’m sure many of Ontario’s police services can use a boost, particularly the OPP. It’s sad that it’s only being spoken of with an election on the horizon, but better late than never. Let’s get it done now and never let it get this bad again.

Chris Lewis served as Commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police from 2010 until he retired in 2014. He can be seen regularly on CTV and CP24 giving his opinion as a public safety analyst.

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Leadership involves risk, especially in policing

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Leadership is inundated with risk, every hour of every day, in all sectors. In policing, legislative authorities and established policy are the ever-present guideposts, but occasionally policy just doesn’t apply. At times someone has to just make a decision to do something, or not, or they will fail the public they serve and the personnel it is their duty to lead. If it goes bad, time to own up, do damage control, learn from it and move forward. It always frightened me when I saw some at the senior executive level in policing think that supervisors and managers operate in a pristine little bubble where nothing should ever go wrong. Then when it did because some supervisor tried their best to make something work for all the right reasons, they wanted to pigeon-hole the person that took the risk. There were times during my own career when executives were not encouraged to take any risk either. In fact, taking risk was career risk in itself. Despite the best of intentions, if it went bad, the one ‘responsible’ be forever labelled as having failed. Even if the gamble went well, the jaundiced eyes from above would still forever look at them as being a potential liability. It became the “Oh, him. He’s the one that...” At times the daily decision making of high-level commanders would be second-guessed by those in the executive suites – some of whom had never really commanded anything. My buddy retired Chief Wayne Frechette used to describe these folks as: “They’ve never been out after dark on company time.” I know this same concept was alive in many other police services. Some at executive levels actually did serve in operational roles at some point but they never took a risk. Somehow, they were fortunate to skate through difficult situations through sheer luck as opposed to good decision-making and never developed any scar tissue along the way. They didn’t learn from failure – they survived by luck. They also were viewed by weak executives above them as being golden because there was never a milli-second of negativity around them. They were Teflon. But those that worked under their “command” (for lack of a better word) had no respect for them. They simply watched them walk around with coffee in hand, never leaving the office or making a decision. It wasn’t leadership, but it did pave the way to stardom from on high, for some. True leaders do take risks at times. Many I worked with and for did it all and did it well. They did so in the best interests of those they served and those they led, because it wasn’t about themselves, but was done in the service of those that placed their trust in them. Policy simply doesn’t fit every situation. It is most often a guide that anticipates most circumstances that employees will face, particularly the more common (high-frequency) ones. But it cannot predict every possible scenario. When that happens in policing, it can occur in very unlikely situations (low-frequency) that are incredibly high-risk. Supervisors cannot say “Sorry folks, the book doesn’t cover this one” and run away crying. They also don’t have time to tell bad guys, “Hey big fella, sit tight. We need to take a pause here and get the whiteboard out so we can have a group-think about how to stop your murderous rampage.” I think that many pseudo-leaders – far too many, are afraid to make risky decisions out of fear that an error will jeopardize their career. Instead, they risk their careers by not making decisions. Or as I like to say: “their fear of career-risk, risks their careers.” This can be fatal in the policing world. When a police supervisor shirks their responsibilities or quivers, sucks their thumb, and prays for the situation to go away, thankfully constables will come forward and do their best to get their teammates through it. Sometimes that ends well and when the supervisor emerges from their fear-induced coma, they will more often than not take credit for the success. But when the situation goes to hell-in-a-handbasket – despite best efforts, the pseudo-leader will document the risk-taking employee and add another bullet-point to their list of things they’ve done to “hold people accountable.” The panel at their next promotional interview will likely hear the false rendition proudly told. I hear examples of this practise from serving police officers across North America on a much too frequent basis. True leaders develop a culture of trust among those they lead that their suggestions and feedback are encouraged and valued. Their confidence that the leader wants their input encourages them to constantly analyze situations and give thought to what policy says and the options available when policy says nothing. That is good for the employee’s development and may save the leader’s hind-end and the continuity of the team on occasion when an employee steps forward in a crisis. Having said that, there will clearly be situations where there isn’t time for the whiteboard, and a decision needs to be made by the responsible “leader.” When it doesn’t work out, the real leader will step forward and be accountable. But when it does go well, the true leader will allow the light to shine on the team they have the honour to lead. In my view, we’re not seeing enough of that in North American policing. We need more genuine leaders at all levels of law enforcement organizations. Developing and promoting real leaders that can manage risk effectively is a must. Anything less fails everyone.

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