The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service says the only way it can meet the city’s budget target for the department this year is to cut overtime — even if that affects responses to fire, the department warns.
In a report that will go to the city’s community services committee on Wednesday, the fire-paramedic service says the only option it has to meet the city’s target to reduce spending by $3 million is reducing the number of fire trucks in service when the number of firefighters working on a shift falls below the department’s minimum staffing.
The report says 167 full-time equivalent, or FTE, positions are considered minimum staffing for a shift to operate all its fire trucks. The department employs 216 FTEs per shift, with the extra 49 intended to cover absences.
If there are more than 49 absences for a shift, the department calls in staff on overtime to provide coverage, the report says.
Since salary costs represent 86 per cent of the department’s expenses, the only way to meet a $3-million budget reduction target year-over-year is reducing staff numbers, the department says.
However, the 2024 firefighter recruit class is already underway, so removing positions permanently is not an option for this year.
That leaves reducing overtime expenses in 2024 — by temporarily removing trucks from active service when there are fewer than 167 full-time equivalents available — as the only option, according to the department’s report.
However, that option “creates operational risk depending on the number/severity of fire events that may occur,” the report says.
“As a result, this is not recommended from an operational perspective, but is the only way a cost saving of $3 million can be achieved in 2024.”
The report includes a schedule of which units would be removed from service based on how significant the staffing shortage is on any given shift.
A shortage of 16 staff, for example, would result in the removal of five units, spread across five different stations, the report says.
Shortages of more than 16 staff would require overtime to avoid a “substantial loss of response coverage and resulting safety issues,” it says.
Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood Coun. Evan Duncan, who chairs the community service committee, said Thursday cost-cutting shouldn’t impact salaried positions, and that the city’s $3-million target may not be achievable.
“We’re not taking firefighters off the streets of Winnipeg. That is not the goal here,” he said.
“The fact is that every other department in the City of Winnipeg has been asked to have a reduction in their spending.… Obviously there needs to be more homework done on how we can find those monies, because it can’t come from the front-line service.”
The fire-paramedic service says it likely won’t run a 2025 recruitment to meet the cost-cutting target, and may eventually have to permanently cut 24 firefighter positions and take some trucks out of service in future years to meet the target.