The talkgroup is not encrypted. The range of the trunk system is roughly about 7 km. The VHF channel was installed when they used to patrol all the way up to Rice Lake, so it has a longer range and it was encrypted a few years ago. Before they lost the contract to the OPP.
The VHF channel is still going, just in case they are needed to backup the OPP or Port Hope and they are out of range of the trunk system.