Police villages were established in Ontario in the late 1800s, where a local population was too small to form a municipality. The original purpose was to establish a local body in a hamlet or village to maintain public order (hence police) and deliver needed services such as sidewalks, street lights, hydroelectricity, fire protection, and garbage collection and disposal, to rural township dwellers. The Police Village of Russell was incorporated in 1898 and is now the last police village in Ontario.

Most police villages were amalgamated into municipalities in 1971. Because the Police Village of Russell also administered Russell Hydro it carried on with the duty of maintaining the electrical system. In 2000 the Russell Hydro Electric System was sold to Hydro One, and the sale proceeds, of about one million dollars, are now administered by a trust, run by the trustees of the PVR.

Since then the principal has been invested and investment income is a trust from which funds are used to support projects which will benefit residents of the old police village boundaries. The three elected trustees choose from many project applications every year and have so given close to $540,000 to over 35 community organizations.

Harry Baker joined Candice Vetter for a chat about the last remaining police village in Ontario on Local First.