Firefighter wages adjusted by City of Powell River councillors and mayor

City of Powell River councillors have adjusted rates for paid on-call firefighters.

At the May 5 council meeting, councillors voted unanimously to increase the pay rates, which have not been revised since 2008.

Councillor Maggie Hathaway said the paid on-call firefighters, which have been referred to in the past as auxiliaries or volunteers, will have an updated employment policy that reflects current practices and features modernized wage rates.

“I recommend we approve this motion to bring our firefighters into line with other departments around the province,” said Hathaway.

Councillor Cindy Elliot said she understands it’s a challenge recruiting paid on-call firefighters and is hoping updated support for that group of people will make recruitment easier.

Mayor Dave Formosa said on behalf of the city, he wanted to thank the auxiliary firefighters, past, present and future.

“Your community needs you to keep the complement up so that we can save assets and lives, and keep our insurance rates intact,” added Formosa. “I plead with anyone out there who could come and be of service to their community to consider being a paid on-call firefighter. Your community is and will be grateful.”

Employment policy

At the April 19 committee of the whole meeting, Powell River Fire Rescue deputy fire chief Rocky Swanson outlined the city’s employment policy to reflect current practices and modernize wage rates.

Swanson said the situation North America-wide for fire departments regarding recruitment for paid on-call firefighters and volunteer firefighters is down significantly and there are a litany of reasons for this.

“The number of the willing doesn’t mean the number of the capable,” said Swanson. “The mission in Powell River Fire Rescue is to provide a general purpose group of firefighters to engage and destroy fires with aggressive use of manpower and fire ground mobility.

“Our execution to do this is we have 15 career firefighters, two chief officers, a public educator and currently, 21 paid on-call firefighters.”

Swanson said his intent is to discuss the firefighter employment policy, which was modified in 2008, and what has to be done to keep firefighters. The policy lays out basic requirements of paid on-call firefighters, what they are paid and what they are armed with to do the job, he added.

“I don’t see a major financial impact when it comes to looking at this,” said Swanson. “It fits into our current budget as is.”

According to the proposed revision, a new recruit would be paid $18 an hour, a firefighter who has completed the fire commissioner’s certificate would be paid $20 an hour, a firefighter who has the certification and two years of service would be paid $30 an hour, a lieutenant would be paid $32 per hour and a captain, $35 an hour. Minimum call-out time for paid on-call firefighters shall be two hours, according to the draft policy.

Formosa said the changes proposed by Swanson “make all kinds of sense.”

“The rates we were paying these people, when you look at it, are kind of embarrassing,” said Formosa. “I know how difficult it is to keep the very important volunteers in service. We need them. We are a small fire department.”

Formosa said there are currently 21 volunteer firefighters and asked Swanson about past numbers at the department’s peak. Swanson said in the 1970s, there were about 100 and about 10 years ago, there were about 40.

Formosa said numbers are declining and the point he wanted to make is that firefighters who volunteer should have a proper scale. As firefighters complete the massive amount of training they have to undergo, the scale really needs to be updated, he added.

“I’m in full support,” said Formosa.

Hathaway said the increases are long overdue.

“I didn’t see anything in there that I could remotely disagree with,” said Hathaway. “When I see them out there training Tuesday nights at JP Dallos grounds, they put in a lot of hours.

“As you’ve noted, the numbers are going down and we have to get that stopped because we are totally dependent on the paid on-call firefighters to protect our city. I’m very happy to see these upgrades.”

Councillor George Doubt said it sounded like the changes being proposed won’t change the fire department’s overall budget for 2022.

Swanson said looking at the number of paid on-call firefighters, versus the number of calls, and then looking at the actual remuneration, it was a small figure in the grand scheme of things.

“We used to have the same budget with a lot more paid on-calls,” said Swanson. “That number, even in the last five years, has been cut in half. By increasing this wage, I’m still way under what we were putting out annually when we had more firefighters.”