Banff politicians have approved a two-tier wage system for Banff’s volunteer firefighters.
The two-tier wage system will compensate volunteers at the same hourly wage of $20 to $28 they are currently receiving for training, duty crews and other duties around the fire hall. A second tier will pay a higher hourly wage of $45 an hour for emergency response.
Silvio Adamo, Banff’s fire chief and protective services manager, said the higher rate is consistent with a full-time career firefighter and recognizes the dedication and professionalism of firefighters when responding to emergencies.
“Our main motivation is to ensure we continue to operate the fire department with the existing model. It’s very cost effective and very effective in general,” he said at a council meeting Monday (July 20).
“While we’re not experiencing recruitment or retention at this time, we want to make sure we are fairly compensating our members and recognizing members for the exceptional service they are providing to our residents and to visitors.”
Banff’s fire department depends mostly on volunteers. There are currently 28 volunteer members. Paid staff includes a fire chief, two deputy fire chiefs, one fire prevention officer and one part-time administrative assistant.
Banff fire department’s annual operating budget is just over $1 million.
For comparison, a model of three full-time fire chiefs, a full-time fire prevention officer, administrative support, 12-full-time firefighters and a compliment of paid-on-call volunteer firefighters would require an operating budget of about $3.1 million.
Mayor Karen Sorensen said the community is incredibly grateful to the fire department, but added she’s not sure the general public appreciates the full scope of what a volunteer fire department means.
“It’s overwhelming the value we receive for those monies spent,” she said.
Councillor Ted Christensen voted in support of the two-tier wage system, but voiced concerns about perceptions around double dipping.
“If anyone says to me, is this double-dipping? I need to know how to answer,” he said.
Adamo said there are only a handful of employers in Banff with volunteer firefighters within their organizations, noting those employers can choose to have a firefighter make up the lost time or discontinue paying the firefighter while they are responding to an emergency.
He said these employers generously allow firefighters to respond during work hours whenever possible, and at times, can shoulder some of the financial burden. In some cases, firefighters end up taking a cut in pay for responding to emergencies.
“We leave it to the employer and the firefighter to work those details out,” he said. “That’s part of the reason we’re bringing this forward, so there isn’t a perception of double-dipping.”
Coun. Stavros Karlos was quick to defend the fire department, saying Adamo is not “the officer to be in charge of double dipping.”
Karlos, whose family owns and runs a local restaurant, said he would willingly pay a staff member if they happened to be a volunteer firefighter. “They provide a valuable service to our community,” he said.
Adamo said no additional funding is required to pay for the two-tier system this year because there have been higher than average revenues.
He said there are also forecast new revenues from increased fire response rates and a recently signed contract to provide fire inspection services to Banff National Park.
“(That) should come close to funding the system without additional funding from Banff taxpayers,” he said.
