Arbitration system unfair to municipalities: Cornwall Mayor O'Shaughnessy

standard-freeholder.com
Aug. 31, 2015
By Greg Peerenboom

Reducing specific municipal costs is an issue that Cornwall Mayor Leslie O'Shaughnessy hopes the province will make headway on in the coming months.

O'Shaughnessy said Ontario Labour Minister Kevin Flynn is warming up to concerns over stubbornly high, arbitrated salary increases for firefighters and insurance liability implications for municipalities.

O'Shaughnessy indicated that Flynn would be introducing legislation that would be more fair to municipalities when it goes through the interest arbitration process.

The mayor said "frank discussions that were quite productive" on this issue took place during the recent Association of Municipalities of Ontario annual conference he and other local politicians attended.

Arbitration has been one of the deepest thorns that municipal politicians would like to pull out of their annual budgets.

Salary contracts, decided by a provincially-appointed arbitrator, for firefighters has been the norm for many years in Cornwall, as well as other municipalities which employ full-time firefighters.

O'Shaughnessy pointed out that arbitration awards have contributed to fire department increases of about 80 per cent in the past 10 years.

"It has been a considerable, considerable amount that has increased the budget, as opposed to other services provided in the city," the mayor said.

The city and the Cornwall Professional Firefighters Association are in the midst of arbitration talks, so any changes to the arbitration system will not have any effect.

The last arbitration award was handed down in 2012, giving firefighters a three-year deal of 9.63% - an amount that was above the level of inflation.

Since 2013, AMO has put arbitration front and centre and asserted that arbitration awards fail to take into account a community's 'ability to pay'.

In the past, arbitrators have largely decided to add extra salary entitlements, such as retention pay, which financially awards firefighters for staying put with the municipality that hired them.

O'Shaughnessy said it appears Flynn acknowledges that changes are required that would be more sympathetic to municipal budgeting.

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While arbitration settlements have been on the radar for some time, municipal liability is becoming an increasing concern.

This is based on a court ruling that determined that a municipality can be liable even though it was only one per cent responsible for a personal injury/death incident.

Since there is a limit on a liability award through driving insurance, for example, a claimant can also try to increase the payout by filing against a municipality.

With the prospects of more compensation being paid by insurers, the mayor said the insurance industry has to ask for higher premiums.

"We're making headway with the province," he said, of AMO efforts to have the province address it.

The increased liability, O'Shaughnessy said, is part of the reason the city has to be strict with any matters that may involve city property.

Such was the case with the Monaco Crescent property owners, who were ordered last January to remove rink boards that were placed on municipal property.