Hiring consultants are a cost which municipalities often are faced with, and often the results of those efforts are rather nebulous.
Fire Protective Services Operational Review carried out in the fall of 2015 by Dillon Consulting has seemed to have filtered down to exactly that, and exercise that confirmed a number of shortcomings within the Fire Services locally, but which ultimately failed to offer a solution local Council could accept.
Dillon Consulting did offer a series of options for Council to consider, but they in general failed to address what seemed a rather obvious reason for the review, to reduce service costs if possible.
To be fair such direction from the City, whether actualized, or merely hinted at, was wishful thinking and little more.
The City and its unionized firefighters have a collective agreement, and dramatic moves to save money, such as reducing full-time firefighters would have strained that relationship, one which has already required arbitration to get a deal four out of the last five settlements.
Real cost-saving measures would have set up a confrontation that would have ultimately been decided in a court someday far down the road. The parent union for fire-fighters is a wealthy one and they would have fought change here hard as a dangerous precedent for its members.
Interestingly what the consultation did do was to get the City and its firefighters talking.
With basically untenable options on the table from Dillon, it became rather clear to both sides there had to be a better option.
So they sat down and hammered something out; ‘a made in Yorkton option’.
It should be a foundation of future contract negotiations. When both sides have their feet to the fire, cliché intended, they can achieve consensus.
But the new found willingness to cooperate may not extend to wages when they finally start new contract talks.
The local option though should be an easy insert into the deal, as both sides were at the table to create it.
The numbers suggest a $200,000 annual saving, but residents best not expect that to happen. Factor in recruiting costs for 19 new temporary paid-on-call firefighters, invest in training and gear, and savings in total dollars will likely evaporate.
We would end up with a larger force, and that would mean more options in terms of how fires are attacked. That is a positive.
Of course the real issue of cost and return gets lost in all of this. The 16 full time firefighters remain, and will be joined by 24 temporary paid on call firefighters all in a Union which has been aggressive in its wage demands through the years, and that will not change with a larger local.
How significantly those wages climb is a critical element of year-to-year fire service costs in the city, and the locally created option for level of service accepted Monday by Council does nothing to alter the likelihood of ever growing costs for staff.
