Staff
With news last week that the Town of Fort Frances is reducing the number of full-time firefighters from eight to six, Fort Frances Professional Fire Fighters Local 1012 is expressing concern for both the reduction of staff and comments made to residents with regards to level of service.
“Many residents may not be aware that the corporation has been reducing the amount of full-time firefighters within the community for over 10 years,” the union said in a media release sent to the Times.
“As a result of their actions, we have gone from a department consisting of a fire chief, deputy chief, and 10 full-time staff to a department now comprised of a fire chief and seven full-time staff—with the indication that this number is soon to be six through a possible layoff.
“Many of these reductions have come after negotiated contracts and our recent arbitration award,” the release noted.
“Although verbally supporting staffing levels in the past, council’s actions have proven otherwise,” the union charged.
“Will the town’s commitment to a staffing level of six be further reduced to five, four, or three, if or when the opportunity presents itself?
“Your taxes are paying for a full-time fire service with the expectation that, when needed, we will provide an acceptable level of service,” the union continued.
“The taxpayers can only hope that this time the mayor and council’s commitment to maintain six firefighters and staff the fire hall with 24-hour coverage is credible.”
The Fort Frances Professional Fire Fighters want to reassure residents that although they remain dedicated to the community and serving its residents, “a further reduction of two full-time firefighters will provide us with additional challenges that may have an impact on our ability to serve you.”
“Any way you look at it, a loss of staff at any level equates to a reduction in responding trained professionals,” the release concluded.
As reported last week, council also opted to strike a new five-year contract with the OPP, which will see the reduction of 1.95 full-time equivalent staff, bringing the complement of constables here from 18 to 16.
It should be noted policing costs are paid for through multiple sources, including municipal taxes, cost-recovery (i.e., fines and
services fees collected by the police), and the provincial government.
Each year, the town gets a policing grant under the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund (OMPF) to help pay for policing.
This year, the OMPF allocation notice indicates the town will get $944,800 to help pay for policing.
The town has asked the province to increase this funding amount, which has not risen significantly since 2004, when it went from being an unconditional grant to a conditional one.
As well, the town gets annual reconciliation called Provincial Services Usage. When local police officers do provincial work, they subtract that time from their cost to the town and the province pays for them.
This reconciliation ranges from $50,000-$100,000/year.
Finally, police get about $9,000 a year in grants to pay for initiatives like R.I.D.E.
Under the new OPP contract, the cost for policing includes not only 15.83 constables but a .32 inspector, .32 staff/sergeant, 1.58 sergeants, and 1.27 clerical staff, as well as direct operating costs, such as telephone systems, etc.
But that complement of officers is assisted by multiple provincial officers at no additional cost to the contract.
These include a district community services officer, a canine unit, one area crime sergeant, one district officer dedicated to the Community Drug Action Team (CDAT), a .68 inspector, .68 staff/sergeant, 2.93 sergeants (provincial mandate), and a host of specialists like highway safety, forensic identification, criminal investigations, crime prevention, intelligence, aboriginal relations, incident command, and divers, and equipment like mobile command units, helicopters, planes, vessels, etc.
Under the new contract, the total estimated cost for policing in 2011 is $2,564,340.
This takes into account the 1.95 FTE staffing reduction but due to a five percent pay increase, this is $94,975 more than the 2010 estimated cost for policing ($2,469,365).
The estimated cost for 2011 would be $2,889,805 if council had opted to remain at current staffing levels in the new OPP contract.
Because the new contract does not come into effect until June, the $2,889,805 indicates what the application of the pay increase would be over the last seven months of 2011.
In 2012, the first full year under the new contract, this variance would increase to $362,820 (or a 3.7 percent tax increase), plus whatever additional increase may come forward in the budget estimate, which has averaged about 5.2 percent since 2001.
The cost per hour of service has increased to $99.97 from $77.70 in the 2006 OPP contract.
