CALGARY
Union asks for another 56 firefighters, says department is at 'breaking point'

'With our current staffing levels, it's safer to live in Edmonton, Vancouver and Toronto, than Calgary — Calgary is the lowest staffed metropolitan fire department in Canada'

Author of the article: Meghan Potkins • Calgary Herald
Publishing date:Nov 22, 2021 • 

The moon sets behind Calgary firefighters as they deal with the aftermath of a fire that destroyed at least one and damaged several other homes on Nolanfield Lane in Nolan Hill in the early hours of Thursday, December 3, 2020. PHOTO BY GAVIN YOUNG/POSTMEDIA

The union representing Calgary firefighters says the service is “stretched to the breaking point” and called on city council to find an additional $10 million in next year’s budget to hire 56 firefighters.

“With the new communities and developments on the edge of the city, our resource(s) and firefighters are getting stretched to the breaking point,” Matt Osborne, president of the Calgary Firefighters Association, said Monday during the first day of debate over the 2022 municipal budget.

“Without investment in firefighters and in facilities, it will get harder and harder to provide services to these suburban communities and communities across the city.”

The union said the hires are necessary to bolster the service’s “relief factor”: the minimum amount of personnel required to maintain operations and cover absences due to vacation, sickness, leave or training. The union said Monday that the service is already falling short of provincially legislated training standards due to short staffing.

“With our current staffing levels, it’s safer to live in Edmonton, Vancouver and Toronto than Calgary — Calgary is the lowest staffed metropolitan fire department in Canada,” Osborne said, pointing to data that suggest the city is not currently meeting the National Fire Protection Agency standard of four firefighters per rescue truck.

The firefighters’ union was one of more than a dozen public presenters that addressed council Monday on topics like accessible sidewalks, transit service and cycling infrastructure.

Council will have to decide this week whether it will approve city administration’s proposed budget increase, which would result in a small tax rate increase of 0.64 per cent in 2022.

If city council also approves an ask from the Calgary Police Service for a $6-million budget boost to support hiring, the rate will go up by slightly less than one per cent next year. CPS leaders are set to speak to council about the request on Tuesday afternoon.

There have been signals, however, that some council members will be pushing for additional spending in next year’s budget in areas like the arts, climate change mitigation and snow clearing on roads and sidewalks. Preliminary estimates provided by city staff suggest the cumulative impact could amount to a tax rate hike of more than three per cent.

Also on the table is a proposal to pull another $55 million from city reserves for the incentive program designed to encourage downtown office building owners to convert them for other uses. Council opted in the spring to put $45 million toward the program, but there are currently more applications than available funding.

Mayor Jyoti Gondek said she wasn’t surprised to hear requests for increased service from many of the people who spoke at city hall Monday, and many councillors, newly elected just a month ago, have their constituents’ concerns and desires fresh in their minds.

“We have come off of a very long campaign period where members of council had time to engage with Calgarians and find out what’s important to them,” she said.

“I think the questions that you’re hearing from them today reflect what they heard at the doors.”

Many of the spending proposals before council this week are aimed at hiring more city employees across different departments.

City manager David Duckworth said Monday that municipal staffing is at a 2014 level and there is “considerable strain” on existing employees. He said city administration’s proposed budget is the “bare bones” of what is required to retain and attract talent.

“We’re at a point in time that if we do not invest in ourselves, I seriously fear losing good people to the private sector and other public sector agencies across Canada and I can tell you, it’s happening right now,” Duckworth said.

With files from Madeline Smith