Do you think your taxes going to the Fire Dept.
are just for protection from fires?
Fire protection has been necessary for community survival ever since we started living together. There are many historical examples of lost communities when a single fire gets out of control and starts to spread. The fires in California right now shows how devasting out of control fire can be.
When we first gather together and form community, fire protection is provided by members of the community in the form of volunteer fire departments. As the community grows so do the fire departments and Nanaimo is an example of how we go from a volunteer department to a full time department manned by 'professional firefighters'.
The cost to a community for fire protection under our current model can be a large part of the city budget and over the years it has grown considerably. In 2023 to wage cost for IAFF is reported at $11,295,926.33 which is up from 2018 at $10,227,510.36. We can expect this number to grow substantially with city council approval of adding 20 more firefighters in 2024 and another 20 in 2025. Based on the average wage in 2023 this will add another $5,000,000.00 to the annual city payroll. This represents a whopping 43% increase in the number of full time firefighters.
Is a 43% increase in staffing due to an increase in the number of fires they are dealing with??
The argument made to city council when they approved the added staffing was of course to deal with the increased work load our already overtaxed fire department has to deal with. You would be forgiven for thinking this added workload was a jump in the number of structure fires they have to deal with, but the numbers don't seem to support that argument.
Let's compare a few stats as reported on the city website on the incident report page. In 2018 there were 161 structure fires and in 2023 there were 172 structure fires. In 2018 they attended 664 motor vehicle incidents and in 2023 695. In 2018 546 calls classed as 'fire other' and 567 in 2024.
All in all it doesn't look like a significant increase in calls for service over the six year period and might call into question the claimed need for another 40 firefighters. You might think that if staff has been able to deal with the fire incidents as reported with current staffing levels the additional numbers might be a nice 'want' but perhaps is not really a 'need'.
There is however one incident report that clearly has put a strain on existing staffing levels and it has nothing to do with fires. It has to do with the number of calls classed as medical events that have blown up since 2016.
In 2016 it is reported the fire department tended to 4832 medical calls and while that seems a staggering number in 2018 that number exploded to 7507 and in 2024 further increased to 7853.
It could be asked if providing medical assistance to people in medical distress isn't what we have an ambulance service for? It could also be asked if providing ambulance service isn't supposed to be provided by the Provincial government and not the civic government?
Is this just another example of senior governments downloading their responsibilities onto local government?
If the need for another 40 firefighters on the tax bill is not needed to protect from fire but to respond to drug overdoses etc. perhaps pressure should come to bear on the province to step up and provide more ambulances which arguably should be more cost effective than using the fire department.
I believe at one time retired and volunteer firefighters were used to take up the slack if an event happened the full time firefighters needed help with. That for reasons I presume came from union pressure is no longer the case.
Either way you might argue that much of the increased workload has nothing to do with fire fighting which comes with a lot of permanent overhead to be born by Nanaimo taxpayers.
BACKGROUND The role of both the Ambulance Service and the Fire Department in British Columbia
(Following is a historical background on the role and changing roles of providing the first response in an emergency.
The author is a retired BCAS paramedic as well as being a retired Fire Chief.)
Pre hospital care falls under the Provincial Govts jurisdiction. This is addressed through the creation on the BC Ambulance Service in 1974. Prior to this is was private.BCAS is funded through the Ministry of of Health via Provincial taxation.
The Fire Service has provided Rescue services since they were created. This used to be referred to as an “inhalator” in the phone book.
Fire Departments are funded by Municipal taxation.In the late 80s Chief Coroner Vince Cain provided recommendations to establish the First Responder program for the B.C. Fire Service that would fit within the mandate for prehospital care with BCAS.
It was very Rocky the first decade or so. Being driven through Ambulance Dispatch it was inconsistent. Fire was at calls not needed, and other times not sent when it was critical.
At the time it was noted that a good way to pad stats was to ask to be sent to everything. Many large Cities did and as call volumes skyrocketed so did staffing and budgets.
There were times Fire was sent to non urgent calls and was bedside for hours until a unit was freed up.
There were many changes over the years. Run “Emerg” for a third party unconscious…no run routine unless someone on scene…..no fire goes emerg but BCAS routine……….
For the majority, it’s a good program. Fire can usually be there faster and for a life threatening medical/trauma call who cares what colour the rig is or the uniform they wear. Time to help.
However, many times the Ladder truck with 4, the BLS ambulance with 2 and the ALS ambulance with 2 is overkill.
Your Provincial and Municipal taxes are both represented. Many people want a Police Officer/Firefighter/Paramedic on every corner, until it’s time to pay for it.
There are options to reduce costs, but when only the taxpayer squawks it doesn’t echo far!
Having worked for both (at the same time) there are simple changes to improve efficiency and decrease costs, but on top of the Chiefs,Directors, Mayors, Councillors, and CAOs both the IAFF and CUPE 873 have to agree. Not going to happen.
Rob Chatton
Retired BCAS Paramedic
Retired Fire Chief
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