Maybe if they only fight fires 18 minutes a year, we really don't need them. It is worth the potential loss in property and lives I think to save that kind of money.
If dress uniforms is an issue, why not take a page out of the military. The military provides standard work dress. Dress uniforms are purchased by the individual.
Posted by Anonymous to Our Town and Its Business at 13 April 2017 at 12:15
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The argument is not that emergency services are not essential.
Fifty per cent of calls are for medical emergencies.
Health care is a provincial responsibility.
Local firefighting departments are obviously the agents capable of providing immeduate assistance.
Cutting victims out of cars damaged in highway accidents is also the department's responsibility.
Ongoing training is a priority and being prepared for natural disasters is also necessary. .
There's no argument fire-fighters should not be adequately compensated for their work.
No contribution comes from the government level collecting resources from sin taxes to provide
that service.
That being said, the service is part of larger organisation. Work conditions, pay and benefit
packages are jealously regarded . Teachers, nurses, librarians, and top administrators are
not inclined to accept second place status and the race to the top has no finish line
In Newmarket/Aurora, staff are engaged year round in e does rounds of "bargaining".
in arbitration.
I think arbitration is always lop-sided to the advantage of labour. But not to all.
Arbitrated decision -makers are not accountable.
Names are barely exchanged.
In the first police arbitration in my experience ,the police received more than they requested.
For decades ,municipal administrators have quietly,secretly,furtively, behind the scenes, for fear of offending our local heroes and the public, petitioned successive Provincial governments , to no avail, to fix the "broken" system of arbitration.
Even while they themselves benefit exponentially from a process that bears no resemblance to
bargaining in good faith. "Feeding at the public trough" is a phrase that echoes down the canyon
over and over into the foreseeable future.
It was no coincidence Dalton McGuinty was featured on the eve of his last campaign surrounded by
firefighters in full firefighting gear holding up signs "Firefighters for Dalton McGuinty" .
Police associations are not permitted to participate in politics. They don't have to. Firefighters do the job for both.
McGuinty had no shame.
That fellow O'Leary, candidate for leadership of the federal conservatives, has touched on the topic
of generous pensions and long life expectancy.
It may be time for history to repeat itself.
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I appreciate and respect the work and service firefighters provide to all of us. They truly are the first responders to an emergency. I've witnessed numerous emergencies where police haven't been around and had to respond and act as both firefighter and cop. Unfortunately their political influence has always been immeasurable to all politians along with the police, teachers and many other government unions. It should be of no surprise how their "collective" agreements are signed.
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