Letter: Collective Agreement & Arbitration, Not Lack of Leadership, Are Stalling Fire Service Reform
A former Owen Sound councillor responds to a resident's call for fire service reform, citing a collective agreement and a six-year arbitration the city lost.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Mr. Hutton is the kind of curious, probing citizen needed in this day municipal apathy. I always appreciated his comments on the budget when I served on council.
That said, his comments on fire costs are both naïve and wrong. Yes, we need a hybrid firefighting force, consisting of a much more affordable blend of full timers and volunteers. That ideal goal is obvious. But the path is anything but clear.
Many decades ago, our civic leaders assumed that our city’s population would only escalate over time. Council signed a collective agreement which guaranteed a minimum complement of full time firefighters. That language (unprecedented to my knowledge elsewhere in the province) has consistently blocked a wholesale change of the department.
Not that we haven’t tried. The last council instructed our legal counsel (one of the best specialists around) to arbitrate a reduction in numbers. The proposed reduction would be sensitively applied through attrition; no one would be terminated. (I appreciate our fire fighters very much and know some of them personally. None of this is in any way to denigrate in any way from their proven professionalism).
This was a unanimous vote by council that suggests the kind of real leadership which Hutton claims to be lacking. The evidence went in years ago and the arbitrator took an astounding six years to get to a final decision.
Though the city paid very good money for that battle, it was a complete loss in every way for the city. The arbitrator relied on the existing limits under the collective agreement and ruled for the status quo. We could not even knock the numbers down a couple of full timers.
It is naïve in the extreme to suggest that we need more leadership on this issue, more thinking out of the box. The provincial firefighters’ union and its local are intelligently operated, tough as nails and fully aware of their legal prerogatives. They are not going to voluntarily consent to a reduction in numbers. Nor are they going to be arbitrated towards that result.
Perhaps some kind of regional amalgamation might spread our fiscal costs over a wider area, but it is hard to imagine Meaford or Georgian Bluffs signing up for that.
If they will not volunteer a reduction in numbers, I don’t know how any of Mr. Hutton’s proposals will fly.
Sincerely,
John A. Tamming
Letters to the Editor do not necessarily reflect the opinions or beliefs of The Owen Sound Current and its editor or publisher.
Related:
