The City of Winnipeg is reporting a $13 million dollar cost overrun in its public works department.
Costs associated with the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service (WFPS) are a large part of the issue, primarily connected to an increase in staff absences and overtime pay.
Mayor Scott Gillingham said the costs reflect the city’s population growth, as well as increased calls for emergency services.
“The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service is a perfect example of the impacts of the population growth on our city, and also the impacts of the ongoing crisis of mental health and addictions,’ he said.
“The calls for service to emergency services only continue to climb, and that’s putting more pressure on police, fire, and paramedics. Couple that with the fact that many in the fire department now increasingly are off on sick leave… so worker compensation costs are going up as well.
“It drives home the point again that we have a growing city, and that we need more revenue to meet the demands of the citizens of the city.”
Gillingham said the city needs increased revenue from ‘various sources’, and he’s in discussions with the province on a new funding model to help ease some of the pressures growth has put on city coffers.
“There’s pressure on us to continue to deliver services to the city, to the citizens of Winnipeg. We need to do that, but to do that effectively, while we maintain cost control, we also need more revenue. We’re just at that place right now.”
Coun. Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan), the city’s chair of finance and economic development, says the ratio of equipment to firefighters hasn’t changed in decades, while there’s been a marked increase in the frequency — and the type — of calls the WFPS has to deal with.
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“You know, 20, 30 years ago, they weren’t responding to drug overdose calls 24/7,” Browaty said, and that’s now the reality.
“Even the demographics have changed. There’s more women that are going on maternity leave from the fire service, for example, and more paternity leave where perhaps the other partner is taking time off. And the ratio we’ve had for trucks and number of firefighters hasn’t changed.
“As a result, overtime has increased dramatically. And that’s become a big financial challenge for us.”
Browaty said some of the costs should by taken on by the province, based on the type of work Winnipeg’s firefighters and paramedics are often involved in.
“These challenges that we’re seeing now, when it comes to people’s addictions and people’s plights on the street — these are really more health care and social services-type issues, which really should be borne by the province,” he said.
“Getting a new funding model with the province (would) appreciate some of these new responsibilities that the city’s never had.”
United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg head Tom Bilous called the city’s financial quandary concerning, but not surprising, given the increased call volume and staffing issues.
“Our members have faced increased call volume in general — medical calls, fire calls, way more fires, opioid crisis, everything… so our call volume has gone through the roof,” Bilous told Global Winnipeg.
“And we have an inadequate staffing ratio. For decades, UFFW has been saying we need to increase that staffing ratio, we need more personnel. And as the call volumes have gone up and our members have seen more, let’s say, unnatural things.
“There’s mental health calls, there’s long-term disability, long-term WCB claims. We are short-staffed and people are coming in for overtime, and it’s created this vicious cycle where they’re getting burnt out.”
Relying on overtime, Bilous said, was a quick fix, but it hasn’t been sustainable, and it’s not healthy for local firefighters who are seeing it eat into their work/life balance, on top of an already stressful job.
The situation has had a negative impact on fire trucks and other equipment as well, he said, which can be dangerous and adds to the response time.
“I’ve never seen at this level…not for decades, where we have machines off -duty. The last time we were in this situation was the city had instituted a vacancy management where they did not call in overtime.
“It’s amazing that now we are at a point where they call in overtime and we still cannot maintain all machines on duty. That is a huge red flag and it’s a matter of time before somebody gets seriously hurt or worse.”
In addition to cost overruns for the WFPS, the public works department has also incurred additional costs for snow clearing and ice control activities, as well as city beautification, roadway construction and maintenance this year.
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