Fire rangers' union says provincial cutbacks leaving northern Ontario vulnerable to forest fires

While provincial firefighters are trying to douse the flames of several forest fires in northern Ontario, their union is raising concerns about how the Ontario government is running the wildfire program.

JP Hornick, president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), said the province is short 50 fire crews this season.

"Communities and residents in northern Ontario are facing real danger," Hornick said.

A big problem, the union leader says, is how the province has been approaching the recruitment – and retention – of its fire rangers.
 

It should be a no-brainer that the wage gap needs to be closed- JP Hornick, OPSEU president

"Every season [the province] faces the same problem," Hornick said. "There's a scramble to manage with too few workers."

"What you have is that young workers start but there are too few permanent jobs, and so they leave."

According to Hornick, the province offers firefighters three to six-month contracts, rather than year-round employment.

It wasn't always this way, Hornick said.

"Used to be that in the non-fire season what the rangers would do is clear brush," Hornick said.

"They would do the kind of upkeep work in other areas of the ministry or across ministries to actually help prevent forest fires the following season and to help with things like snow clearing and whatnot."

"With the cost of living crisis as it is and housing and travel that's required, people simply either aren't applying or they're finding jobs in other sectors where they can find that permanent employment," Hornick said.

Adding to the challenge of recruitment is the lure of full-time firefighting work with municipalities – and their more lucrative salaries – which draws a lot of bodies out of the potential pool of firefighters, Hornick said.

"It should be a no-brainer that the wage gap needs to be closed, period," Hornick said. "They need their pay increase, but they also need that contract problem addressed."

"There is no world in which we think that fire rangers should be on short-term contracts at this point with climate change the way it is."

Shayne McCool, a fire advisor with the Ministry of Natural Resources, said the province is more than ready to handle any fires this year.

"Every year is a little bit different, especially with the fire situation and with staffing and recruitment," McCool said.

"But we do have 90 per cent of our staff and we do have partnerships in place and we continue to grow those partnerships."

The ministry has adjusted to staffing challenges by mobilizing slightly larger crews, which they hope will provide enough experience to train future leaders.

The province also has several agreements with neighbouring provinces and states to tackle larger fires, and if needed, can call on reinforcements from countries like Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand.

Partnerships with at-risk municipalities and Indigenous communities are also part of the mix, important connections if fires escalate and threaten those populations.

Overall, residents don't need to sound the alarm bells, just yet.

"We are utilizing those partnerships when we need to," McCool said. "But as it stands now, Ontario is ready to respond to those fires."