There are fears small rural volunteer fire departments in Eastern Ontario could face major financial struggles as the provincial government looks at changing the minimum wage law, also known as Bill 148.
“This may affect our budget substantially in the neighbourhood of doubling our budget,” explained Augusta Township’s Fire Cheif, Rob Bowman.
The changes to legislation could force municipalities to pay volunteer firefighters to be on call for at least three hours a day. Regardless of whether a fire is actually taking place.
“Our concern as a fire service is not with minimum wage. Our concern is with the on-call provisions that will hugely negatively impact our budget,” said Bowman.
Augusta Township has two fire stations which respond to about 180 calls a year. They have 37 volunteer firefighters, at about $20.00 per hour for three hours, the department would be spending nearly $22,000 per year on salaries of each firefighter. Which has major budget implications as the budget for the services is $620,000 a year, the new legislation would bump that budget line to more than 1.4 million.
“Sometimes us sitting here we think everything east of Belleville is forgotten about at Queen’s Park,” explained the townships Deputy Mayor, Bill Buckler.
The Association of Municipalities of Ontario is lobbying for amendments to the bill which it feels has targeted both small and large municipalities which could see budget increases of between one and two million dollars.
“We require an exemption not only for volunteer firefighters but for all of our employees that are required to respond for public safety,” said Lynn Dollin, the president of AMO.
The fire chief says s if changes aren’t made to the legislation, volunteer departments may be forced to reduce their rosters. Not something he wants to see happen in an era where attracting volunteers in the first place is a struggle.