Ontario will buy five new police helicopters at a cost of about $100 million more than what the province earmarked for leasing the choppers in this year’s budget.
Premier Doug Ford said the province decided to buy the helicopters rather than lease them at the request of several police forces.
“This new fleet of helicopters will be a massive boost for community safety,” Ford said on Monday.
“It will help keep our highways and roadways safe from violent carjackings, auto thefts, street racing and impaired drivers.”
The province initially said in March it would lease four police helicopters for the Toronto area for $36 million, plus $10 million to operate them.
The Ontario Provincial Police will receive two helicopters to support Ottawa and Toronto police forces. Three other helicopters will go to Durham, Halton and Peel Regional Police services.
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A car is stolen every 14 minutes in Ontario, the worst jurisdiction for vehicle theft in North America, Ford said.
“That is simply unacceptable,” he said.
The province has yet to purchase the helicopters, but plans to do so shortly with the goal of having them in the air by 2026.
Ontario Liberal Party Leader Bonnie Crombie said Ford’s government has failed to tackle auto thefts.
“He complains about auto theft and blames everyone — but himself,” she said in a statement.
“The truth is that after six years of inaction, Ford isn’t interested in fixing what’s broken.”
Ford also said skyrocketing insurance premiums are largely due to the auto theft crisis in certain parts of the province. Rates are much higher in and around Toronto because of the high auto theft rate.
“If we stop the cars being stolen, the premiums should be coming down,” he said.
Two years ago, Ford pledged to end the so-called insurance practice of “postal code discrimination.”
Yet on Tuesday, he struck a different tone when asked if he would end the practice via legislation.
“We’re going to make sure that we reduce the cars being stolen and work with the Insurance Bureau of Canada, of Ontario, too, to reduce the fees,” he said.
He stopped short of pledging a legislative change to bring down car insurance rates for those living in high-priced insurance neighbourhoods and cities.
This is a corrected story: A previous version said ‘purchase’ instead of ‘lease’ in paragraph four.