New firefighters driving East Gwillimbury budget higher

Yorkregion.com
Nov. 12, 2015
By Simon Martin

The old saying goes that the devil is in the details.

Tuesday was the first chance for council to dig into the details of the 2016 budget.

The town’s proposed operating budget is at $18.34 million, $1.1-million more than last year’s.

More than half of that increase is due to a hike in staff salaries and benefits and a cost of living adjustment for employees.

It should be noted that the town remains the only municipality in the region that is debt free.

The proposed tax increase of 3.95 per cent is the equivalent of an extra $57 a year for the average East Gwillimbury home.

According to town treasurer Mark Valcic, 1.75 percentage points of that increase are dedicated to the town’s plan of hiring two additional full-time firefighters this year, while there is a 2.2-per-cent increase for programs and services.

The town implemented a plan to transition to a full-time fire service in 2014 with the goal of moving from six full-time firefighters in 2013 to 20 by 2018. It hired six in 2014, two in 2015 and plans to hire an additional two in 2016, 2017 and 2018. To fund this transition, Valcic has proposed a 1.75-per-cent tax increase each year dedicated to bolstering the community’s emergency services and that’s what was agreed to in the 2015 budget.

The idea was to have services ready for when new development comes to town. But there is something about the plan that doesn’t sit well with councillor James Young when the emergency services budget came up for discussion.

“Those (new residents) that will be here haven’t been paying for it in 2016, 2017, 2018,” he said. “It’s the people living here right now that our paying for it. When will they get their break?”

Young said more of the burden of hiring new firefighters should be borne by development charges. In other words, let growth pay for growth.

Staff will report back on the matter.

While many residents support the town’s transition to 20 full-time firefighters, there are some who disagree.

“This has been a knee-jerk reaction to the Dunsmuir fire,” Holland Landing resident Reg Twynam said, in reference to the horrific fatal blaze that killed four members of a family March 29, 2013.

Twynam said he doesn’t understand how the town can keep hiring firefighters when the population is still at 25,000.

The town has said it will start to see more growth next year when an estimated 500 new homes are occupied, bringing about 1,500 more residents to the community.

The fire service, for its part, has seen an increase in its use in 2015. According to Fire Chief Phil Dawson, 1,500 more people were reached this year through his department’s fire education and prevention programs - a key accomplishment. The number of incidents in the town has climbed from 1,061 in 2014 to 1,200, so far, in 2015.

Of the incidents, 40 per cent were medical, 20 were false alarms and 2 per cent were fire.

Budget deliberations continue Friday, Nov. 13 at 9 a.m.