Expect longer wait times for firefighters, chief confirms after 2nd budget cut in year

The chief of the Calgary Fire Department says his crews can absorb a second budget cut this year, but warned it will mean slower response times for emergencies.

The fire department's budget was cut by $1.4 million earlier this year and has been trimmed by another $7.6 million as part of $60 million in cuts agreed upon by city council this week.

Among the cuts announced by city council on Tuesday, there will be four fewer medical response units and one less rescue unit on the fire department's front lines, which means reduced service for critical medical interventions and emergency responses citywide, and increased response times.

Chief Steve Dongworth said Friday that the department strives to get firefighters to calls within seven minutes — and 11 minutes for an effective response of additional trucks.

They're often missing the targets as it stands, and he says these cuts won't help.

"Already we're around the 13-minute mark on the effective response force and this will doubtless mean that will go in the wrong direction, no question," he said.

On Wednesday, the president of the Calgary Firefighters Association, Mike Henson, had warned that people would be waiting longer for firefighters.

Medical response units are SUVs with two firefighters that respond to life-threatening calls and usually arrive before paramedics because fire stations are often more strategically located.

A full fire truck with four firefighters will now respond to those calls, Henson said.

He said dozens of positions would not be filled, and additional savings will come over the long term through attrition, where a position is not replaced after someone retires or leaves. Henson warned the department would really feel the crunch about two years from now.

Dongworth says he doesn't dispute the union's concerns.

"I don't think there's anything that president Henson has said that I would disagree with," he said.

The fire department has cancelled this summer's recruit class and there likely won't be another before 2021.

Dongworth said the department has also eliminated almost all overtime, which has reduced staffing levels on some shifts.

"We have made a decision that for the time being, instead of paying overtime, we will actually take trucks out of service during the day," he said.

"You saw that recently, I think, with a boat that we took down during the day. But I can tell you with every shift, we've been taking units out of service to avoid overtime to try and make sure that, again, we can sustain the workforce that we have without layoffs."

By this time next year, there will be 50 fewer firefighters in uniform, and Dongworth says temporary station closures are possible.