Year-over-year costs of both operating the local city municipality, and for infrastructure growth and renewal had Yorkton Council seeking to delve into costs.
In fact the 2016 Capital Budget passed at the regular meeting of Council included projects which may not proceed this year until after the review of operations has been complete. They included the City Transit Bus, Drake Field Spray Pad, Gloria Hayden Court Walls and the Farrell Agencies Arena Expansion. The estimated costs of those projects have been removed, however if Council wishes to add any of them back to budget we would just need to update the long term financing that is required to fund the 2016 Capital Budget.
As it is the 2016 Capital Budget will be $19,786,355, which would require long term financing to carry out. The amount to be borrowed would be approximately $6,200,000.
The first review to be completed, and at Monday’s council meeting made public, is the Fire Protective Services Operational Review.
The document is some 125-pages but it boiled down to five distinct options to how the City might address its fire protection services best. The options included one put forward by the then Fire Chief in 2012, and a second one developed by the current Chief in 2015, and three developed by Dillon Consulting.
The options were provided with an impact on budgets, should they be implemented. Four of the five options would increase costs from $262,000 to $1 million annually, while the fifth was estimated to reduce operating by about $445,000 annually, but increase capital by $36,000.
So if cost savings were a goal of the review they seem unlikely.
That said, Councillor Chris Wyatt said Monday he was disappointed the options did not go farther in terms of utilizing paid on call firefighters. He said he wanted to see a force with three fire chiefs overseeing a paid on call staff, suggesting such a force would be $1.2 million annually, money which could be then targeted at projects such a revitalizing Broadway Street, or another “30 projects at well over a million dollars (each).”
It was clear Wyatt at least among Council was looking to trim fire protection costs.
However, in some of the options there would be increased utilization of auxiliary force members, or volunteers paid on call, including the one Wyatt was looking for, which at present would run counter to the collective agreement the City has with its professional firefighters.
“The collective agreement would be a major challenge to implementation,” said Steve Thurlow, with Dillon Consulting.
Neal Matechuk, president of IAFF Local 1527 Yorkton Professional Firefighters said the review is not the only one which has been undertaken in recent years, but added the latest is a document the local is willing to sit down at a round table to discuss.
“Let this report become a guideline,” he encouraged, suggesting working together was the best way of “putting the citizens of the city first …
“Let’s get back to some round table meetings … We’ve accomplished a lot of things together … Let’s fix the manning problem.”
That is putting a positive spin on things, but let’s face it negotiations between the Local and the City have not exactly been successful in terms of staffing and wages.
For four or the last five contracts between the two sides the process has ended up in binding arbitration. That system by nature is confrontational while being argued, and divisive once a result is imposed which leaves neither side completely happy.
As it stands the last contract ran out Dec. 31, but negotiations are on hold pending the Review and the direction Council may choose to go.
It appears one thing is for certain, the likelihood of reduced costs for fire services is remote.
So as it stands Council now needs to determine firstly what the citizen’s expectation of service should reasonably be, and that might well be the status quo. That level of service has to include an eye to what is financially reasonable as well. A ‘Rolls Royce’ service might look good as a goal, but is that affordable long term given other financial considerations facing our City?
But once a target is set, then the elements of the Review which best get the city to that target can be focused on. That focus needs to include the firefighters too, as they are the ones doing the job.
To make change work both sides need to be ready to give and take, and that has been a problem in the past as witnessed by the repeated contract arbitrations. Whether the two sides are at that point of giving and taking to make it work is to be seen. It should happen, but history suggests it will not come easily.
Council took no decision at the Committee of the Whole meeting on the Review, tabling the entire review until the Jan. 25, meeting of Council, although that seems scant time to have meaningful talks with the firefighters union on just how the process might start, let alone deciding what the ultimate goal will be.
