Opinion: Firefighters contract shows total ineptitude of Mayor McDonald and council to protect the interests of taxpayers

Editor's note: Mr. Rennick's letter refers to the BayToday story City, firefighters reach new CBA.

-----

The latest contract negotiated between by the City with the firemen is another example of the total ineptitude of Mayor McDonald and council to protect the interests of taxpayers. Firemen have priced themselves out of the market and the idea that the service they provide is actually worth the money being paid to them is ridiculous. The clearing rate for these positions was exceeded a decades ago.

Seventy four of the 109 people on 2019 sunshine list for North Bay were firemen. Fifteen of the top 20 positions on the list were firemen. Leading that list was a Fire Platoon Chief who was paid $225,000.

To say that these salary levels are obscene is hardly sufficient. As usual, our elected officials continue to allow these contracts to be negotiated in secret without fanfare and then announce the results after the fact. Why haven’t the municipal politicians in this town started the process to move to a volunteer fire department? Probably the same reason they voted down a proposal to obtain quote from the OPP.

Firefighters are not professionals. Firefighters associations, like police associations, are labour unions by another name. There is no professional organization that sets out the educational qualifications for a fireman. There are no professional standards in place and a fireman is not issued a license by any self-regulating body.  And why would there be? Fire fighting fires doesn’t require professionals. It requires someone young with a strong back and not much else.

Firefighters are not heroes. A fireman who shows up in a $750,000 vehicle loaded with the latest firefighting equipment wearing $5,000 of gear and pours water on a burning building while standing on the sidewalk is just doing what he was paid to do.

A fireman’s job is not dangerous. The on-the-job fatality rate for firemen has been approximately six per year for the past 175 years and in almost 50% of cases heart attack or other trauma was the cause of death and 30% of those were persons with known heart problems. If danger is a factor for wage levels, what should we be paying construction and manufacturing workers who account for over 40% of on the job fatalities in any given year

Taxpayers are strapped for funds and are too worried about jobs to even think about raises. When is this untenable situation going to change? Not anytime soon especially when council continues to avoid doing anything but what they should be doing which is looking out for the interests of the taxpaying public.

Don Rennick

North Bay