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A heated battle between Thorold city council and its full time firefighters, the mayor wants to reduce the number of firefighters to save money but the union is fighting back.
The city of Thorold and it’s 18 000 residents are served by 110 volunteer firefighters, the cost $300 000 and 18 full time firefighters that cost the city $2.2 million. Mayor Ted Luciani says the the entire fire service is 28.6% of the operating budget. “It’s not sustainable, we’ve hit a wall with the cost for fire service.”
Association President Rick Honsberger says Thorold gets value for the money, for 94 cents per household per day, firefighters respond to about 1100 incidents a year. Everything from fires, to car crashes, medical calls and water rescues.
This war between city council and the full time firefighters has been going on for some time. A couple of years ago there was talk of having Thorold fire service amalgamate with St. Catharines but residents nixed that, they didn’t like the idea of another city responding to their emergency calls.
Mayor Luciani says the latest settlement gave the firefighters a 9% raise over 3 years, when other workers got 5% The base rate for a full-time firefighter in Thorold is $92,000 year. He would like to see the full time force be reduced by 4, not by layoffs, but through attrition.
