Higher wages and benefits are the cause of a 14-per cent hike in the budget for Owen Sound Fire and Emergency Services.
The department’s budget is climbing from 3.7 million this year to 4.2 million dollars in 2012.
It’s the direct result of a recent arbitration decision that gives firefighters a wage jump of more than 3.5 per cent in each of the last three years.
The decision awarded firefighters a retroactive pay increase of 3.6 per cent in 2009, 3.8 per cent in 2010 and 3.6 per cent this year.
City Manager Ruth Coursey and Mayor Deb Haswell both say they’re dismayed by the arbitrator’s ruling, which followed a hearing in July.
Owen Sound and the city’s Professional Fire Fighters Association have been without a contract for three years.
Negotiations broke down in 2009 and a conciliator could not bring the two sides together.
Coursey stopped short of accusing the association of bad-faith bargaining, but she says the association was content to let the provincially appointed arbitrator decide the matter.
And that was bad news for the city, as it has been for other Ontario communities.
Last week, Kingston firefighters were awarded a wage hike of nearly 10 per cent for the last three years.
Timmins, Trenton and Brockville are some of the other communities that recently have had to shell out big bucks to their firefighters thanks to arbitrators’ rulings.
Mayor Deb Haswell says the Ministry of Labour’s arbitration system is broken.
The city plans to speak with Bruce Grey Owen Sound MPP Bill Walker and will also band together with other cities to lobby the provincial government for changes.
Owen Sound has no other remedy at this time, because the arbitrator’s decision is final and binding.
The mayor and the city manager both say arbitrators are supposed to take into account a municipality’s ability to pay, and they don’t believe the arbitrators are doing that.
Haswell says she wonders how long Owen Sound will be able to continue to afford a professional firefighting service at this rate.
Fire Chief Ed Nowak declined to comment to Bayshore Broadcasting News.
The 14 per cent increase in the fire department’s budget became clear on Monday during the first day of the city’s budget deliberations.
Council and staff wrapped up budget talks on Tuesday, and the city is looking at a budget increase of 4.68 per cent in 2012.
Owen Sound needs to raise 22.6 million dollars through taxation — up about one million over last year.
It is likely to mean an increase of about 93 dollars per year on an average residential property in the city.
A public meeting to discuss the budget will be scheduled for early in the New Year, and it’s expected that council will give final approval on February 6th.
