Letter to the Editor April 10, 2010

Emergency Services: Our Own Adult Conversation

David Dodge, former Bank of Canada Governor, has urged Canadians to have an adult 
conversation about their fiscal priorities at the federal level.

We could have a similar conversation at the local level. But it can pretty tough for those who try. Take the reception accorded as of late to our Chamber of Commerce.

It appears that certain council members resented the “accusatory tone” of the Chamber at a recent council meeting. That resentment would be directed at the president, Dave Moyer.

I was not at the meeting but I know Dave to be irascible when he chooses to be. Moyer used to have Attack seasons tickets above us and the quality of his heckling impressed much of Section A. Any heckler can deliver volume; Dave was famed for the very intelligent and thoughtful commentary directed at the Dale Hunters and near sighted zebras of this world. In short, he was an awfully good pick to lead the Chamber. If Moyer wrote a letter criticizing counsel, I suspect it was a little over the top.

On behalf of the Chamber, Dave thinks it is nuts to not at least grant an interview to the low bid on a busing contract. Instead the contract was given to Miller Transit. That name might sound familiar. It is related to another company which, when caught, admitted that it had been tossing much of our carefully sorted recyclables into a landfill (that’s right, Mabel, freezing in your house coat in the garage sorting pickle bottles from Cosmopolitan magazines – you should have stayed in bed). Miller eventually apologized and it may be that Miller Transit was the best qualified for the bid. But without at least interviewing an eligible bidder, who will ever know? Further, even if it was best bid, could we not have at least gone through the motions of making Miller sweat a little in view of its past corporate conduct?

We could use a little more scrutiny of City Hall, rather than dismiss those with legitimate questions. It is not personal, does not mean that council is not trying or that city hall staff is less than competent (I have always been impressed with the dedication of councilors for so little pay and with the overall excellence of our city staff). It only means that with a budget in the millions, errors can be made in certain corners. Council could stand to be a little more receptive to advice delivered about its business by those from the business world.

This is the second time I have seen the Chamber stiff armed. At the public budget meeting, Chamber rep Bob Switzer had done some research and had marshaled some facts on his side as he approached the microphone and questioned council on the emergency services side of our budget. The numbers arguably suggest that we pay more per person for fire and police than almost any other city in the province.

That is a remarkable bit of research and I thought deserved some public feedback from council. No such luck. Her Worship, Mayor Lovell, deflected the question to the police and fire chiefs. Each of them thought their budgets were fine, thank you very much. The research was flawed, we were assured. Not a single member of council uttered a word to the contrary. The good Chamber man gave up, left the mike and resumed his seat.

It is a matter of fact that if the current trend holds, emergency services (fire and police) will consume well over half of all city hall spending. This is simply not tenable. And it is not just Owen Sound. West Grey politicians have mused aloud about the increasing cost of emergency services and it has been a live (is there any other kind?) issue in Meaford as well.

This is not necessarily a comment on compensation packages (although “retention” bonuses for Owen Sound fire fighters seem odd – since when has the department had trouble filling its ranks?). Katrina revealed for us all to see the kind of ineptitude which low pay, low morale and low recruiting standards lead to. It is not so much the individual pay but rather the scope of emergency coverage that is at play.

The police budget is a tougher nut to crack, given the arbitration mechanism that effectively tells council what to spend. To address this budget requires either an OPP costing study (as Sarnia council recently commissioned) or a sustained and meaningful lobbying by Ontario municipalities at the provincial level for revisions to the arbitration process.

But take fire, with a budget of $3.34m. Our town of just 21,000 has 30 full time fire fighters and several other full time employees, including the chief and fire prevention officers. That is, it has one full time person for every 600 residents. I find that kind of coverage absolutely astounding. Again, this is not to comment in any way on the professionalism of that department.

Is there a way of getting the same job done more cheaply? The town (their word) of Orangeville (population 27,000) has adopted a composite model. That is, it blends full time with part time staff personnel and also covers sections of adjacent townships. Orangeville has 10 full time fire fighters and several full time employees and fire prevention officers. It also has 32 volunteer fire fighters. The per capita cost of fire to the tax payer is less than in Owen Sound. The full time fire fighters man the station 7 days per week from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. The budget is $2.44m, almost a full million less than ours, for a population of almost 23% more. It works for them.

It may just work for us. The inter township crews seem to do a fine job with a fraction of the resources. They are trained to the same provincial standard as those in Owen Sound. It certainly seems extravagant to have scores of full time personnel in the building 24/7 when volunteers are available to supplement a full time core.

But whether the composite approach would work for Owen Sound remains an open and interesting question which can hardly be settled in the pages of this newspaper. That said, with perhaps savings of a million on the table, would it not be wise for council to at least welcome rather than stifle a discussion? This is a long term issue; there are collective agreements in place and we would need to allow attrition to play out rather than trigger painful layoffs.

Perhaps council could consider a task force on the subject in advance of the upcoming municipal elections. It could include our present chief, a couple of concerned councilors, an outside fire administrator with composite experience and, yes, a representative of the Chamber.

-  John Tamming, Owen Sound