Volunteer firefighters across the Yukon now getting paid more for their service

Firefighters are an important resource in any community but especially in smaller, rural towns where it's often volunteers that step in to help. 

That is why the Yukon Government has increased the honorarium volunteer firefighters working in unincorporated communities get while they're on calls or in training. They will also now be paid on an hourly basis.

As of Oct. 1, the volunteer honorarium will be increased to $30.74 an hour, up from $22 an hour.

"Before, their training time was lumped into four-hour increments, and so now they'll get paid per hour which will really help a lot especially when folks are giving up entire weekends and stuff to train," said Kiara Adams, Yukon's fire marshal.

Adams said the increase will apply to volunteer firefighters serving in the following fire departments: Carcross, Golden Horn, Hootalinqua, Ibex Valley, Klondike Valley, Marsh Lake, Mount Lorne, Tagish and Burwash Landing.

The increase will also be applied in communities where there aren't enough volunteers to establish an official fire department, but still have enough to form a "scene safety" response unit. Those include: Destruction Bay, Keno City, Old Crow, Pelly Crossing, Ross River, and Champagne.

"We know nowadays especially everybody's got very busy lives and are stretched very thin at times, so we really value the time and effort that our volunteers give to attend their training nights, and often meet on weekends to do additional training," said Adams.

She also recognized that volunteer fire halls in unincorporated areas run because of the dedication of about 160 volunteers. 

"Our Yukon fire service is very much reliant on volunteers and they're the most valuable asset that we have," she said. "We can have the nicest, newest fire hall, and the best trucks and equipment but if we don't have the people to run them then we don't really have much,"  

Grateful but there's more to be done: fire chiefs

Warren Zakus is the fire chief of the Ibex Valley Fire Rescue and president of the Association of Yukon Fire Chiefs. 

He said firefighters don't do their jobs for the money, but this increase will definitely help.

"We keep our vehicles plugged in in the winter because you never know when you might need to respond to an incident," Zakus said. "Just little things like the fuel to drive to the fire hall ... and then you know some of our people miss work to attend training sessions, so it is really nice to receive the honorarium ."

John Smith, Watson Lake's fire chief and the association's vice president, said this increase will help with retention issues his department and others are facing.

"We're all struggling to increase our volunteer firefighters," Smith said.  

Smith and Zakus said they are both grateful but there is still more that needs to be done to support the territory's fire services. Funding for the fire marshal's office is at the top of their list. 

"From our point of view they've been critically underfunded for years and that has a trickle down effect," said Zakus. "Whether it's our equipment being maintained, or replaced in a timely manner or training being provided, you know the lack of funding does make that challenging."

Smith echoed that, saying, "All we're looking for is some more support from the government for the fire marshal's office, who again, provides a lot of support to all of the community fire departments. It's greatly needed."