After a thorough report from their consultants on the subject, Owen Sound City Council has decided unanimously to reject the OPP proposal for providing police services to the City.

Owen Sound Police Services (OSPS) has agreed to review their own services and their budget to see if they can get closer to the benchmark set by the OPP.

When consultants Joe Levack and Roger Hollingworth presented what they referred to as an "apples to apples" comparison  of both the services and costs of the OPP and OSPS providing policing services to the city, they determined  that both provided a full range of necessary services. Including the expenses of the transition period, the consultants estimate that the OPP would cost the city less by an estimated $1 million a year by 2021. Their projection was that the cost of Owen Sound Police Services in 2021 to 2027 would be $8.1 to 9.45 million, while OPP over the same period would be $7.1 to $8.2 million per year.

The revenue from that centre was factored in to the calculations.

The request for an OPP costing arose from the full review of city services in 2016. The original presentation was made by the OPP to a working group in October, and the information was provided to Levack Management Consulting for analysis.