Firefighters pulled from budget, one voting hurdle remains

Posted February 5, 2013

A 4-4 tie vote that kept $303,325 dollars in the 2013 draft budget last week to hire six full-time firefighters, was broken by Ward 5 councillor Donna Jebb, who had been away the two previous weeks, and last night joined those opposed to the expenditure, to remove the funds.

The impact reduced a proposed average tax increase for municipal purposes of $116 to $94.23. When the County's estimated increase of $9.31 and an estimated education tax reduction of $17.20 is factored in, the overall average tax increase is $86.34 or 2.78 per cent more than 2012.

Removing the firefighters funds also brought the levy requirement to $22,249,244 which is a $1,301,071 or 6.38 per cent increase over last year.

The matter moves to council for ratification next Monday night, where it's anticipated the firefighters component will subject of a record vote. Last night, in committee, those voting to remove the funds were Ward 4 councillor Fran Sainsbury, Ms. Jebb, Ward 6 councillor Richard Norcross, Ward 7 councillor Bruce Haire, and Ward 8 councillor Jim Stone. Deputy mayor Rick Milne has declared a conflict of interest because his son is a full-time firefighter with the City of Vaughan.

Last night's two hour discussion, included deputations from Kevin McKinnon, an Alliston resident and 10 year member of the Toronto Fire Department.

Mr McKinnon asked why the potential new hires, targeted to come from within the New Tecumseth complement, were starting off at a 3rd Class pay scale - approximately $70,000.

"I started off at the probationary rate," he explained. "What I'm saying is, as a taxpayer, do I support the fire service? Yes. But when it comes to hiring, I think it should only be fair that we look at the proper procedure to hire, and at what rate. What I'm saying to council is, make sure you fully understand what's going on, and that we are making the right decision to hire either at a 3rd class rate or to work their way up when they complete their component exams, and experience on the job to put them up to 3rd class rate. Probationary rate seems more reasonable to me."

Glen Ackerman, Captain at Station 1 Alliston, also spoke against the need for full-time firefighters without first exploring other options.

Mr. Ackerman focused on the medical calls, of which New Tecumseth Fire service is a tiered as a Level B, which means life threatening. Medical calls represent about 37 per cent of all responses, according to Chief Dan Heydon. And on average, New Tecumseth's three stations arrive on average 55 per cent of the time ahead of paramedics.

"The ambulance runs with two people, so there should be no need for the fire department to respond with any more than two people either," said Mr. Ackerman. "That is why most of the firefighters do not leave their jobs or businesses during the day. It's not because they're not available, they're just not needed. I have a business and financial background, as a person who deals with numbers all day long, the numbers to justify full time firefighters just don't add up."

He suggested that one of the areas that could help lower turnover rates, is to integrate new recruits quicker into real-life scenarios. Currently it could take up to one year of training before they're sent out on actual calls.

"Some tasks in the fire service haven't changed in 50 years, we still put wet stuff on hot stuff," said Mr. Ackerman. "I can tell you that pushing a broom task hasn't changed since I entered the fire service. When we go to car accidents we have to sweep debris off the road, we need to direct traffic, we need to go back and forth to the truck to get tools. We currently use our experienced firefighters to do this task, but there's no reason why we couldn't get our recruits involved doing tasks like this. Just like a house fire, are we going to send a new recruit in to put out a house fire? No. But they can work in rehab changing air bottles, backing up experienced firefighters on exterior fire houses. The point I'm trying to make here tonight is there are many ways we can change the way we do business in the fire department that will help in the reduction of turnover, and increase the number of responders, both day and night, at the same time at a fraction of the cost."

It was a position echoed and repeated by Mr. Stone, who served as a fire chief in Tottenham for 42 years. He said the bylaw that restricts the Alliston Station 1 to 30 volunteers should be amended to raise the complement, as well as in Beeton and Tottenham. Focus instead, he suggested, on boosting recruitment efforts.

Councillor Haire said he was torn because he understood the problems, but that there was no support in his ward for the expenditure.

"I know my residents are looking at me and saying, we can't afford an almost eight per cent increase, so they don't want me to support it. I think I found one person who was sort of in favour, but anybody who is going to run, that is not the consideration, they'd have a tough time saying, we want full time firefighters, and that's what we need. They would just get decimated. So, I think I'd like Jim's plan to give it a shot. But I think we have to give the chief more tools to do to carry that through, and do the recruiting, and perhaps look at the sort of thing that King does and having some people on standby."

In that sense, he suggested giving over $60,000 which didn't pass, but could come up again next week, as Chief Heydon was asked to consider how the additional funds could be utilized on things like incentives, recruitment.

Ms. Jebb likened the situation to when Stevenson Memorial Hospital announced a few years ago that it needed to close its emergency department because of doctor shortages.

"And the municipalities rallied around, and we have an excellent doctor recruitment committee, and it's all volunteer. and I believe we've done very well to help the hospital, and we were able to get the emergency room reopened," she said. "And working with volunteers, and opening up, and trying to get more recruitment and see how we do. It's just right now, financially we cannot afford it. We need to work on it, put it in for next year, but we can't afford it right now."

A motion to go with four firefighters failed by the same 5-4 vote, which was also put on the table last week, and failed to win support.

The debate turned more heated following the vote, when Ward 2 councillor Jamie Smith suggested that there was no need to spend any more money on the fire master plan.

"We just voted non-confidence in the chief," said Mr. Smith. "It's not about the money, it's about safety."

That sparked Councillor Norcross to respond, objecting to the notion that they were putting money considerations as the top priority.

"I'm sorry that it didn't go the way that certain people wanted it to go," he said. "We all agree we have to do something because the status quo isn't working. So let's collectively get together with everyone that's out there, and see if we can make it better. And if we can't fix it, then there is never a wrong time to implement something different, because if it's the right time, it's the right idea."

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