Jess McDiarmid
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, December 5, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - The Yellowknife Fire Department needs a dozen more full-time firefighters, its union president told city council during presentations for the 2008 budget, Monday night.

" I understand that we don't have open coffers and money doesn't grow on trees," said Craig Halifax, who was joined by about a dozen firefighters at the meeting. "

Local firefighters union president Craig Halifax told council that staffing levels are jeopardizing the safety of Yellowknife fire fighters at the Dec. 3 2007 budget meeting. - Jess McDiarmid/NNSL photo

The 2007 budget slated two positions starting in July of next year but those were bumped in the draft 2008 document to one position in 2009 and one position in 2010. A dozen more bodies would mean eight firefighters per shift with a six-person minimum so two firefighters could respond in an ambulance and four would still be available for fire calls.

According to studies cited by the union, firefighter injury rates are more than 35 per cent higher in cities that staff trucks with less than four firefighters but Yellowknife has a two-person response policy.

Two firefighters will respond to a fire call but it's " unheard of and considered inherently unsafe," said Halifax.

" If you put yourselves in our shoes, if you arrive on the scene of a fire with two people on a truck and you have a family with parents screaming and yelling to save their child and there's two of you sitting there, by all accounts you are not supposed to undertake any operation going inside because you do not have the staff," he said.

" But if you went up to any one of us here today I would almost guarantee we would do something and most likely it would be at significant detriment to ourselves. That's why I'm saying 12."

Halifax said after the presentation that if there were two fires at the same time, unless they were garbage fires, the department couldn't handle them.

Four firefighters were added to the 16-person roster at the fire hall in 2003. Prior to that, no firefighter positions had been added since 1988.

Meanwhile, call volumes have roughly doubled to an estimated 3,650 this year from 1,844 in 1990.

As the number of emergency responses climbed 15 per cent from 2003 to 2006, non-emergency responses such as inspections, public education and station tours fell by 28 per cent.

The union presentation also compared Yellowknife to several Albertan municipalities with fire departments providing fire and ambulance services.

Fort McMurray's department, with 108 firefighters, responded to 4,138 calls while Strathcona County, with 90 firefighters, dealt with 4,653 calls. While those departments get backup from neighbouring municipalities, Yellowknife can't.

Mayor Gordon Van Tighem said yesterday that the actual operation of those fire departments would have to be considered in the comparison. For example, roughly 1,500 to 1,700 medivacs are included in the figures for Yellowknife, said Van Tighem.

Several councillors also said they wanted more information on the comparisons between fire departments.

Coun. Kevin Kennedy said after the meeting that the union made a strong case for expanding emergency services and council will probably make improvements to it.

" Certainly I'll be in favour of doing that," said Kennedy.

Emergency services are a matter of priority, Halifax told council in closing.

" What is left to you as representatives of the citizens of Yellowknife is to decide what should be those priorities and what they are worth to those you represent," he said.

" As firefighters we are dedicated to our jobs and will do everything in our power with what we are given, and this is often done at the detriment to ourselves. We are here for the community to provide an essential service, which we take very seriously.

" We take this as a matter of life and death."

Council will deliberate the budget at special meetings of the priorities, policies and budget committee on Dec. 11 and 12.