Mr Garfield Dunlop (Simcoe North): My question today is for the Premier as well. On October 21 of this year, you announced during a speech to the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police that your government will add 1,000 new police officers. You also said that your government will contribute $30 million to this endeavour over the course of the mandate. I shouldn't have to tell you that the $30 million is actually a pittance given that it costs about $100,000 a year to put a new police officer on the street. Over the course of the mandate, if you started to phase it in right now, you would be covering about 15% of the cost.

Municipalities will have to pick up most of the tab for a promise that you made during the election. I ask you: Do you expect municipalities to pay for their share of hiring the new police officers with the money they collect from tax increases or from photo radar?

Hon Dalton McGuinty (Premier, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs): I'm sure the member is aware of this. This is, in many ways, an extension of the program brought forward by the previous government. Just so the member has his facts straight, we're talking about funding of $30 million a year, every year. It's my understanding -- and I can refer the supplementary to the minister -- that covers half the cost. Now the ball is in the municipalities' courts. It's up to them now to decide to what extent they wish to avail themselves of this program.

Mr Dunlop: I think you should do the math on half the cost, because it's costing a lot more than $60 million to add 1,000 new police officers on the streets of our province.

Since your government was elected, they have increased fees for municipal police services to train recruits at the Ontario Police College and have added the cost to municipal police services of gun verification, which was previously covered by our government and by the province. What makes matters worse is that we now know that you're just buying time with your announcement on the 1,000 new police officers.

Affected stakeholders received a letter from the Ministry of Community Safety. I believe the letter is code for, "Let's drag this one out as long as we possibly can before we have to put any money into it."

Premier, we believe it has been all talk but no action, so far, on keeping the promise on the 1,000 new police officers. Can you tell us when you're going to allocate money and if you'll let the police services decide how to use that money?

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Hon Mr McGuinty: Rather than refer it to the minister, I'm going to hang on to this one so municipalities will better understand where we're coming from.

We're going to make the money available this coming year. It is part of a new and much better relationship we are developing with municipalities. In fact, just recently I received a letter from Roger Anderson, president of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, who says in passing, "There is a refreshing new approach to intergovernmental affairs underway in Ontario, and this association welcomes it and will work diligently to enhance it. Our citizens deserve nothing less."

I understand the scepticism brought to this matter by my colleague opposite; he has a partisan responsibility to share that scepticism here in this place. But the reality is that we are working well with our partners, the municipalities across the province.

Mr Dunlop: I'd like to get some comments from the Premier on the response he got back from mayors on the 1,000 new police officers. You made a promise to put 1,000 more cops on the street. You should keep this promise before you do anything else.

It has also been brought to our attention that your government is creating a new so-called Ontario centre for safer communities. Apparently, this new centre will reflect what you would consider to be a new approach to crime prevention, crime reduction and promotion of safer communities. To help cover the operating costs of this project, I understand that several ministries in your government will transfer funds to the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services. We know that the ministries had until October 15 to indicate whether they would participate. Premier, how much will this new centre cost, and where will it be located?

Hon Mr McGuinty: To the minister.

Hon Monte Kwinter (Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services): My parliamentary assistant is working on that project. We have announced it, we've invited several ministries that will be impacted by this to participate, and we will be announcing, at the appropriate time, what the program is going to do and where it's going to be located.