Money booked to grow 'hybrid' fire department

Posted January 10, 2013

New Tecumseth councillors agreed to include the estimated $303,324 cost to hire up to six full-time firefighters in the 2013 budget, while leaving open options for its implementation.

The financial impact this year is pro-rated over seven months which in 2014, will climb to about $520,000, and annually thereafter as the firefighters move up the profession's salary grid.

Its effect on the current draft budget pushed the tax levy up to approximately nine per cent over last year, following the end of council's second working session last night at the fire hall in Alliston.

Steve Thurlow of Dillon Consulting presented the firm's Fire Master Plan as an interim report so the recommendation to create the "hybrid" department could be included as part of the budget deliberations.

New Tecumseth's fire rescue service is administered by a full-time administration made up of the chief, deputy, and prevention officer, supported by a full-time administrative assistant.

There are 105 remunerated volunteer firefighters - 30 in Alliston, 35 in Beeton, and 40 in Tottenham. The difference in complement sizes recognize the growing difficulty New Tecumseth is facing that ensures enough first responders can be assembled when needed during weekly business hours. Employers like Honda and Gibson Transport, and some others locally, allow their employees to leave the job site when their emergency pagers go off.

Those part-time firefighters who work outside of town, aren't able to respond.

The full-time crew would work daytime shifts, Monday to Friday, 42 hours per week, and initially three stationed in Alliston, three in Tottenham, and Beeton worked into the mix.

When asked whether it made sense to add more part-timers to the rosters to increase the on-call capacity, Mr. Thurlow replied that New Tecumseth had already followed that path.

"Forty years ago, we had a complement of 20 maybe 25 volunteers in a station. In those days it was the community, and everyone responded from work. It was a very very different environment," he said. "Under this Chief's (Dan Heydon) leadership you have done what you have suggested. You raised it 30, you raised it to 35, you raised it to 40, you've done all those things, As you've done it, I suggest you've used up the well on the day time people, because they are difficult to get. You've done well. I highly commend Honda for being the kind of employer they are, for letting people go.That's quite uncommon today, you don't typically get that."

Communities across the province, added Mr. Thurlow, are faced with the same emergency response issues, and more are turning to the notion of taking on full-time staff to buffer those risks.

"My point being, I think the Chief is doing everything he can to go after the target market, which is the day time person, but I can tell you across the province, it's getting smaller and smaller, and the job itself of being a volunteer firefighter is getting more and more difficult," he said.

"The training from 40 years ago to today, is 300 fold on the commitment you have to make for training. The risk is 500 fold compared to what it was 40 years ago. What we used to have as the 25 year committed volunteer, we don't typically see that anymore. The work life balance pressures of the volunteers is very very different."

While New Tecumseth councillors weren't opposed to the idea, there were concerns expressed around the salary impacts, as well, the potential for in-fighting among the current members of the department.

Ward 4 councillor Fran Sainsbury said it would be expected that among the applicants for the full-time positions would come from within the current complement and she worried whether hard feelings of being passed over would create inner conflicts.

"I wouldn't want to see the negative side of that happening," she said.

Mr. Thurlow noted that while such a scenario was possible, discussions that took place with the firefighters as part of the Fire Master Plan development, suggest that the upgrade in fire rescue service was welcomed because it also took pressure off of them to leave their jobs.

"We still need the volunteers to respond during the day time, no different than they do today," he added, "because if I have that house fire at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, I'm only talking about four full time staff. I need 10 more volunteers to show up."

As for booking the money in the current budget, Ward 1 councillor Bob Marrs said "I'd rather go that way and stepping it up, because when it comes to an election year, you're not going to be stepping it up, so let's do it now."

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