Dear Editor,

I am writing on behalf of the Owen Sound and District Chamber of Commerce to express our strong support for the Op-ed commentary entitled Fire Raises Unsustainable made by Owen Sound Mayor Ian Boddy in the January 17 issue of the Sun Times. The sub title to the Mayor's remarks is "Fire services are pushing Owen Sound's budget and future out of balance" and in our view this is exactly correct because of the continuing and escalating impact of excessive arbitrated awards to firefighters.

It has been the Chamber's long-held public position that it is essential for the government-imposed interest arbitration system which applies to firefighters to strike the right balance between  fair compensation for firefighters and the ability of municipal taxpayers to pay that compensation. This is far from the current situation. Presently, the overwhelming basis for arbitrated awards that are imposed on Ontario municipalities is comparability with (and then surpassing) arbitrated awards in other municipalities, resulting in big city settlements awarded to small town communities like Owen Sound. Moreover, it is obvious that ability to pay is given scant attention by arbitrators because we are well past the fiscal and equity tipping point.

Clearly, Ontario's current interest arbitration system is unbalanced and unresponsive to legitimate taxpayer concerns. The direct result is that Owen Sound and many other small Ontario municipalities are forced to cut in other priority areas, hold the line on wages of other municipal employees and/ or raise taxes to meet the arbitrators' edicts.

And as the Mayor observes, this disastrous arbitration system also diminishes our future economic prospects. Considerable effort by the County, the City of Owen Sound, and yes the Chamber is being made to attract new companies, grow existing ones and generate an increasing number of well paid jobs. But right now, the interest arbitration system severely impedes our ability to succeed.

It is essential that the Ontario government as an urgent priority develop and implement better arbitration processes, including timely and written reasons for decisions, and more clearly defined criteria for the arbitrator's mandatory use so as to ensure that arbitrated settlements are fair, balanced, transparent and accountable.

In closing let me reiterate Mayor Boddy's comment that, "Firefighters' pay and benefits
make up 90 per cent of the fire service budget, and the fire service in turn accounts for 17 per cent of the city's operating budget". Can Owen Sound continue to pay for the rising costs of 29 full-time firefighters when less than ten percent of the 444 municipalities in Ontario maintain full-time firefighting departments? There are less costly firefighting models used by over ninety percent of Ontario municipalities that provide high quality firefighting services. A different approach is long overdue in our community. It's time for our firefighters to have that discussion with the City and taxpayers of Owen Sound.

Sincerely,

Peter Reesor
CEO
Owen Sound and District Chamber of Commerce