Councillors remain undecided on full-time firefighters

Posted January 22, 2013

Last week, New Tecumseth councillors voted in favour of including $303,340 in the 2013 draft budget to hire six-full time firefighters effective June 1. While the funds were booked, there was an asterisk attached noting that further discussions would take place to include possible phasing.

Last night, council did nearly everything but remove the funds from the budget, second guessing whether the Town could afford the "hybrid" which would see the full-time first responders working day shifts, 42 hours per week, Mon-Fri, as a means of ensuring personnel were on hand to answer the bell during business hours. It's a situation that chief Dan Heydon has noted is becoming more difficult to achieve for various reasons.

Ward 6 councillor Richard Norcross said his concerns were related to the eventual costs the full-timers would require as they moved up the salary grid ladder. They're slated to start the 3rd class grid, which is just over $60,000, and then that climbs to $77,000 as a 2nd class, then $86,000 for 1st class (that's a current levels).

Mr. Norcross also wondered whether the mix of full-time and the part-timers would become a problem.

Chief Heydon suggested the way to rememdy those concerns was to look within the department to find the six candidates.

"One of the ways of getting around that is how you base your hiring criteria and how you set up the initial responsibilities, the initial interactions between those full time staff, what they do in the stations, and I've said it from the front of the process, we have to recognize the talent pool we have within," said the chief. "I served this municipality for 22 years as a volunteer before I had the opportunity and the pleasure to serve as your fire chief. As long as we have that same sort of understanding that those folks that we may or may not hire have that 'never forget where they come from attitude', you will have that respect from those two groups."

Ward 8 councillor Jim Stone, who spent over 40 years as Tottenham's fire chief, also commanding Adjala and Rosemont departments, said he had "mixed feelings" about the "composite" set-up "because I hear a lot of stories about what's happened in other municipalities."

"I know what firefighters do, when they're doing their overhauls at the fire hall come back and cleaning up equipment, and you've got full-time people there and volunteers might say, 'you're getting paid for it."

Mr. Stone said there had to be a way to make it more appealing for people to want to join the department as volunteers.

"Is it money, can we make it more romantic to be a firefighter (...) you gave them something in exchange, you allowed them to be something they couldn't be normally, they couldn't be a full time firefighter, so you gave them all of the best equipment, that's what we did, so they could have that incentive, make it socially attractive, things like that," he said. "Maybe the firefighters' associations could have a drive on. Try to solve the problem because once you get into a composite, it gets bigger and bigger and more expensive, and eventually it turns into a professional department. Can we afford a professional department? So I would like to see maybe the chief and some of the staff have some more discussion."

Chief Heydon explained that recruitment is an annual project, but the department has a 10 per cent turnover each year.

"We do an annualized recruitment, we do it in September, we do the advertising in the paper, the web sites, the phone a friend opportunities, and I can tell you right now as I sit here January 21, we only completed that recruitment in October, I've already had five resignations," he said. "Unfortunately, it's not the way it used to be all the time. It comes to life and work balance, it comes to call volume, it comes to the impact on your employer, and what the employer's expecations are, and trying to balance everything. I know we've talked to a number of employers over the years, those that support us well, and those unfortunately that don't support us at all because they don't allow the firefighters they do have to leave for day time calls."

In the end, councillors could not come up with any firm decisions, other than to seek more information as to what the impacts on insurance rates would be in town if full-time firefighters were added to the complement; how much money would be saved by the part-timers not having to respond to an estimated 180 calls per year in the three station zones; and, consideration for cost scenarios over the long term of the full-timers.

Council is scheduled to approve a final draft budget on Feb. 11. Whether the money for firefighters is included, will have an impact on the budget line - it's estimated the figure now included is about a 1.5 per cent hit on the overall tax levy.

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