Editorial – What is the future of firefighting?

South Dundas Fire and Emergency Services faces a hiring dilemma that is not of its own choosing. The fire service has a significant deficit in staff for the three fire stations that serve the municipality — Morrisburg, Iroquois, and Williamsburg.

Recruitment is one of the biggest and most continuous challenges for the service. South Dundas is not alone in this. Recruitment for volunteer or paid-on-call firefighters is difficult, in part because of provincial regulations. Firefighters are better trained now than they ever were in past decades, but that training comes at a cost. For municipalities, training one new recruit can cost over $10,000 in a two-year period; for those trainees, that education comes with a personal cost to family time. Unfortunately, there is a higher turnover of recruits or recent graduates, which makes reaching a full complement at fire stations a goal too difficult to achieve.

South Dundas has a fire master plan, but council has not formally accepted that plan. That likely will not happen until the municipality fills the recently vacant fire chief position. Again, this community is not alone in having issues with its fire service. However, a neighbouring community may have a solution that could help with its own fire service issues and be a model for South Dundas.

South Stormont recently received a report from a consultant that recommended moving to a composite fire department. This essentially means a full-time paid firefighter complement, with paid-on-call firefighters filling out the remaining positions. In South Stormont, that would mean a full-time chief, deputy chief, and four firefighters.

The composite fire service model is already the most common fire service model in Ontario. According to the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs, 210 of the 437 fire services in the province are some form of composite service.

Moving to a composite service means an increased cost to taxpayers — what change does not? Presently, paid-on-call firefighters are paid when they respond to calls and for training. Full-time staff under a composite model would result in more wages than what are being paid now. The benefit would be less turnover and therefore lower training expenses for new recruits. As there is already a workforce of full-time firefighters in Ontario, recruitment would be easier, as would hiring straight out of college programs.

In South Dundas, the benefits may outweigh the increased costs. There is a need for more firefighters, that need is not being met, and current incentives are not enough to recruit or train people. A composite firefighting model may just be the right idea to meet the needs of the present and the future.