- Ian Boddy
As Mayor of Owen Sound I look forward to the New Year and the celebrations that are planned for 2017. Canada will be celebrating 150 years as a nation and Owen Sound will be celebrating 160 years as a City. Council and I look forward to meeting everyone at events as we celebrate these two great milestones throughout the year.
Owen Sound council often hears from residents that they have not had a raise in years, or are living on a pension or fixed income. I understand that the 2017 municipal budget increase of about 3% is less than welcome, when homeowners are already facing highercosts for food, electricity and other necessities. Council did its best to contain the increase, but some budget items are almost impossible for council to control. Among these are the wages and benefits we pay to our fire fighters.
Fire fighters' pay and benefits make up 90% of the fire service budget, and the fire service in turn accounts for 17% of the city's operating budget. That's right: almost one out of every five dollars the city spends goes to fire protection. Of the wage increases the City must pay in 2017, it is estimated that more than one third that amount will go to 29 fire fighters. The remainder of the increase is divided among the remaining 165 City employees.
We have seen some fires in Owen Sound in the past few years, most recently at the Coach Inn, and City fire fighters did an excellent job. Thankfully, however, serious fires are becoming rarer, through improvements in building codes and materials, mandatory smoke detectors, and ongoing public education. This progress is reflected in the fact that Owen Sound's fire department averages just over two calls per day. This includes all types of calls i.e. fire calls, medical calls, and false alarms.
Everyone respects the important duty our firefighters have. Everyone agrees they need to be compensated well for this job. And they are: as much as firefighters in several large cities earn, in fact. Owen Sound's first-class firefighters in 2014 made just under $90,000 year in wages and almost $115,000 with pension and benefits included. Wages for 2015 and onward have not yet been settled. Firefighters with 8 or more years of seniority are paid more.
Because firefighters in Ontario do not have the right to strike, their collective agreements go to an arbitration process if they cannot negotiate an agreement with their employer. Although arbitrators are supposed to consider the municipality's "ability to pay" when deciding on wage increases, they regularly hand down awards that are well above inflation.
Historically, Owen Sound's fire fighters have received significant pay increases, based on negotiations and arbitration awards. These awards also include non-monetary benefits that far exceed those provided to other City staff and private employees.
Last year, an arbitrator awarded Owen Sound's fire fighters a 10.7% retroactive pay increase for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014. The inflation rate over that three-year period was about 4%. Other City employees received in total between 3.5% and 4% wage increase over the same three year period. The firefighters received a raise nearly three times the rate of inflation. The arbitrator also enshrined firefighters' two-hour paid lunch break in their collective agreement, after the city sought to make it one hour.
When that decision came down, city staff warned that it would have a significant impact on the city's fiscal situation. As you can see from the tax increase we must levy for 2017, it has. And while we cannot ignore arbitration awards, neither can we continue to shortchange our roads, bridges and public buildings from the repairs and updates they need to serve our citizens and businesses.
The impacts of firefighter wages and benefits are not just the dollars, budget items and percentages that I mentioned above. They are manifested in potholes and overcrowded roads, and ageing public buildings.
We are now in negotiations with our firefighters for a collective agreement that will apply for the years 2015 and forward. Given the state of the economy nationally, provincially and locally, Owen Sound cannot afford more wage increases like the ones the arbitrator awarded last year, without affecting our taxes, services and infrastructure. We will do our best to contain the rising costs of our emergency services, and I hope we can count on the support of Owen Sound residents in that endeavour.