FIRE PLAN COULD SAVE $ 16M

Council cost- cutting strategy OK’d, but union urges caution

With city council set to vote on a contentious plan aimed at saving millions of dollars annually, Calgary’s firefighters union is urging caution in how the strategy is implemented.

A committee approved Wednesday a strategy to cut management and shift firefighters around Calgary which could save up to $ 16 million annually by 2018 if council votes for the measures later this month. It proposes to trim management positions to 13 from 16, possibly through attrition.

Firefighting resources would also be repositioned based on risk and demand.

City administrators lauded the idea of redeployment, such as moving resources from low- population areas like the suburbs during the day, and into downtown, for instance, where a large population is at work.

But fire officials warned that suburban firefighting continues to become more complex with cul- de- sacs and dead- end streets making fire trucks difficult to manoeuvre, as well as modern- day materials allowing fires to spread more rapidly.

“There’s a misconception that newer construction is safer, but that’s not the case,” said Mike Carter, president of the Calgary Firefighters Association, Local 255.

“These homes are built with petroleum- based materials... and they’re closer to each other, which means everything burns up faster.”

However, a consultant’s controversial recommendations to reduce first- alarm responding units from four firefighters to three, as well as closing up to five fire stations, were rejected outright.

“There will be some significant realignment at the management level and the layers of management,” said Diane Colley- Urquhart, committee chairwoman.

“Finding a savings of $ 15 to $ 17 million is no minor thing — that’s about a one- per- cent difference in taxes. At the end of the day that’s significant.”

But the union warned city council to exercise caution when considering a number of the cost- cutting measures as it makes its final decision on the budget review.

Carter explained that Calgary already runs lean on number of responding staff compared to other large cities.

While most big cities arrive with a four- member crew at a first- alarm fire, secondary units in Calgary such as aerial or rescue responders arrive with just two members while other cities like Edmonton and Vancouver still use four for the same response.

As well, Calgary Fire Department response times, now at seven minutes, are slower than international standards of six minutes and 20 seconds.

“Once you move beyond eight minutes, you move beyond the room of origin,” Carter said, meaning the fire spreads extremely rapidly, outside the room where it started, destroying the entire property and threatening loss of life.

Fire Chief Steve Dongworth added his own warning.

“We already have a fire department that is pretty lean compared to other big cities,” he said.

“We’re lean, we’re light, but we’re progressive and everything we do is already based on best practices.”

The fire department employs nearly 1,480 full- time equivalent staff, has an operating budget of $ 220 million and a five- year capital program of $ 205 million.

The report will go before city council Nov. 23.