Town to lay off dispatchers and seek outside service
Town of Yarmouth says it can’t keep subsidizing service for the region
The Town of Yarmouth said last week efforts to identify a new cost-sharing formula for local fire dispatch services have been exhausted without finding a solution.
As a result, the town will begin the layoff process of dispatchers and contract out a dispatch service for itself.
This means the other fire departments that have used the Yarmouth dispatch service – and that haven’t already left for another service provider – will have to do the same.
The town had been looking for the departments that use the service to pay more towards the annual $260,000 cost.
“On Nov. 11 the town received word that the 24 fire departments who rely on the town dispatch service had failed to reach a consensus on cost-sharing. Seven of those departments have already left and opted to sign contracts with call centres outside the immediate area,” read a Nov. 13 media release the town issued. “That forces the town to begin the layoff process and prepare for contracting out the service for itself.”
This timeframe had not yet been determined.
“The union representing the dispatchers has asked to discuss the terms and conditions of the layoff in bargaining, which resumed Tuesday morning, Nov. 13,” the media release said.
The town will contract its dispatch service to a provider in western Nova Scotia. Two proposals have been received but have not yet been fully evaluated.
FIRST NOTIFICATION
In April, during contract negotiations with the union representing the town’s professional firefighters and dispatchers, the town had indicated its intention to lay off the four dispatchers and seek outside dispatch services to save money.
The town said it was covering about $161,000 of the annual cost of the service. It said the 24 departments in Digby, Yarmouth and Shelburne counties using the service were each paying about $100 a month. The Municipality of Yarmouth was covering the balance.
At a public meeting in May, fire departments said they would be willing to see the amount they paid increase if it meant saving the service, although it was also noted some departments are cashstrapped.
PROPOSAL PITCHED
In August the town pitched a proposal to the departments, saying the service could be saved if all departments agreed to a one-cent tax rate increase to cover the cost of the service. The town said for a resident with a $100,000 assessment, this would have equalled $10 a year.
In the absence of a tax rate increase, the town had pitched a pay formula to the 24 departments (based on a five-year average of usage of the dispatch service) to cover the cost of the service this year.
For a six-month billing period, the costs varied from a low of $76 for the Richmond department to a high of $42,140 for the Yarmouth Fire Department.
For many departments, the funding formula would have been steep in comparison to the roughly $1,200 a year they’ve been paying. Examples of six-month bills included Meteghan ($9,280), Island and Barrington Passage ($10,365), Shelburne Fire Department ($10,768) and Woods and Shag Harbour ($15,509).