The union representing Vancouver firefighters is slamming the city’s 2022 budget for what it calls significant cuts to the city’s fire and rescue services.
The Vancouver Fire Fighters’ Union Local 18 says funding allocated to the fire department next year would result in the loss of five firefighters.
The union argues the Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services is already under-resourced, and that the city is failing to uphold a 2018 plan to add 100 new positions to address those problems.
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“We lost 99 lives in Vancouver during the heat dome. Those were some of the deadliest days fire fighters in Vancouver have ever seen. We could have done more to help but, the support wasn’t there” IAFF Local #18 vice-president Lee Lax said in a media release.
“The heat dome made it impossible to provide the level of service the public needs and deserves. We’re now in an era of multiple crises and, for emergency services like us, that means we need adequate support from city council so we can show up for our community when they need us.”
Vancouver’s draft budget, which was being reviewed by councillors on Wednesday, sketches out a 2022 operating budget for the fire department of just over $147 million, up from $144 million in 2021, reflecting “an increase in compensation and benefit expenses arising from contractual increment and higher WorkSafeBC rates, in addition to higher E-Comm allocation.”
It outlines 861.1 full-time equivalent positions for 2022, the same as 2021.
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But it also outlines plans to hold five firefighter positions vacant, saving $650,000, which could cause “significant safety risks and risks of longer response time as well as higher overtime to meet minimum staffing levels.”
The vacancies are not unique to the fire department; as a cost-saving measure, the city is holding vacancies across all departments at between 0.5 per cent and 2 per cent of core business levels.
New VFRS hiring planned for 2022 as a part of the 2018 multi-year operational review would also be deferred “to future years,” the draft sates, adding “development of a multi-year plan to address the identified demands is ongoing.”
The 2022 deferral of 20 firefighters, two fire prevention officers, one analytics support professional, one training officer and four safety officers would be on top of hiring deferrals in 2021 of 25 firefighters, two fire prevention officers a diversity an outreach officer and an analytics support professional.
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The union says members are under increasing pressure amid COVID-19, the overdose crisis, more frequent and severe fires and the effects of climate change and extreme weather.
It is pressing councillors to instead “stick to the plan” and add more bodies to the fire and rescue services, along with an additional fire truck to support southeast Vancouver.
The $1.735 billion 2022 Vancouver budget projects a spending increase of $144 million, with an approximate five per cent property tax increase.