Calgary firefighters ask for funding as union says department is at 'breaking point'

Calgary firefighters say it's time to reinvest in the fire department following years of budget cuts.

City council took public submissions Monday as part of its annual budget debate, and Matt Osborne with the Calgary Firefighters Association told them the Calgary Fire Department needs more money.

"We're more than fires. We respond to car crashes on the Deerfoot, water rescues, major … hazardous material leaks," Osborne said.

"We need to make sure that we're keeping up with the training, with the equipment, and making sure we have enough people to respond for Calgarians."

Structured and funded

The department has been hit with millions of dollars in budget cuts in recent years as the city tightened its spending.

But Calgary's population has continued to grow along with the area the fire department must serve, Osborne said.

"The fire department budget has been getting cut, and the firefighters doing the work has been stretched thinner and thinner across the city to respond to people's emergencies," Osborne said.

"It has been a number of years that has brought the fire department to the breaking point. We know it's not going to be solved overnight, but we need a very important first step of some refinancing, and then working toward a bigger conversation of how the fire department is structured and funded."

Mayor Jyoti Gondek says the fire department does critical work to keep Calgarians safe, and the city has to ensure that it is being funded properly.

Gondek also said she would consider implementing a model similar to the Calgary Police Commission that would allow council more direct communication with the department.

"I can tell you that as I look at growth plans, not having mechanisms to embed funding for the fire department is a big problem," Gondek said.

"And these are things that we've raised and tried to address over the previous term of council, and these are things that we will continue to focus on into this term."

Outreach team asks for more drop-in services 

Others that appealed for city funding during the debate included Chaz Smith, the president of a Calgary street outreach team called Be the Change YYC.

"We lack basic drop-in services that we used to have in the city where you could go shower, do laundry, get a hot meal," Smith said.

"Unfortunately, this also means that accessing housing becomes more difficult, as not staying in emergency shelters, for example, means that you're not able to access their programming because you're sleeping outside."

According to Smith, the cost of homelessness on average is $66,000 to $120,000 per person, per year, while emergency shelters costs $13,000 to $42,000 per person, per year, to run.

And as the weather gets colder, vulnerable populations are more likely to suffer from frostbite and be admitted to hospital, he said.

"We want to reduce the damage to the human lives that we're seeing here," Smith said.

"What would be great is if we had some drop in emergency warming centres, like other cities."

'Real investment'

The city was also warned that city staff need to be paid competitively, and current revenue levels would not be enough to fund any additional projects. 

D'Arcy Lanovaz, the president of CUPE Local 38 that represents 5,000 workers at the City of Calgary, said between its expenditures — such as downtown revitalization, affordable housing and the new arena — there are no efficiencies left in the budget.

"Special interest groups would have you believe that you can somehow maintain all of the current services, add new projects and new spending, all with the same or less revenue. This is just simply false," Lanovaz said.

"You simply cannot achieve all of this on the backs of city staff. Fifteen thousand households cannot be expected to shoulder the burden of building a city of half a million households."

Proper revenue adjustments need to be made to maintain services and build the city, he said.

"You cannot, in other words, cut your way to a healthy, vibrant city. Now is the time for real investment in Calgary."

Councillors can bring forward their suggestions for budget changes as the week goes on but adding any new spending to next year's budget can boost the tax rate, which administration is trying to keep to less than a one per cent increase.