The cost of public safety is taking an economic toll, according to most Ontario municipal leaders.

It’s a debate that’s dominated the Association of Ontario Municipalities conference in London, with communities saying the only solution is to have the province pick up some of those costs.

For some cities emergency services make up 85 per cent of their budgets.  And often city officials have no say on how that money is spent, especially when it comes to fighting crime.

But according to Ron Bain, executive director of the Ontario Association of Police Chiefs, “The police find themselves responding to, and spending time, and allocating police resources to things that are arguably outside of police's core functions.”

The association estimates officers spend more than 80 per cent of their time on tasks unrelated to fighting crime, like hunting down bears or keeping watch over a mental health patient awaiting care.

Ontario yearly spends $320 per person on policing. The national average is $260 a year.

In Tecumseh, near Windsor, the cost is closer to $600 dollars per resident, per year.  

Tecumseh's C.A.O., Tony Haddad, says much of that is because police are forced to fill the gaps in mental health care, “The first call goes out to the police, because it’s a risk perceived within the community.  The police respond and that again brings with it a cost associated with policing as opposed to social workers or those that are working in the health sector.”

Haddad says cities can't keep paying for provincial claw-backs, “When we're spending more on policing, it limits how much is available for other services in the municipality and it has a corresponding impact on the tax rate.”

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne says that’s a conversation she's willing to have, “We recognize we now have to do that work with the municipalities.”

But Wynne wouldn’t commit to picking up the cost of policing, instead pointing to other systemic changes.

“If the investments in mental health and the way we deliver mental health services changes and becomes more adequate and appropriate, I would argue that those kinds of (policing) costs would diminish.”

But police and municipal leaders say, until that happens, police will continue to be the first called for many problems, problems that have little to do with law enforcement.