Alarms aren’t going off on projected Barrie Fire and Emergency Service (BFES) spending in 2021.
The BFES operating budget is set to increase by 1.8 per cent, or $487,000, and most of that (1.72 per cent) is for salaries and benefits.
Barrie Fire Chief Cory Mainprize says next year’s $27.5-million operating budget does include other increased spending — on personal protective equipment, medical and cleaning supplies to mitigate COVID-19 exposures, and expanding health and wellness assessments for BFES personnel.
Revenue generated by long-term emergency communications contracts with other municipalities, grant revenues and internal transfer funding offset the BFES budget expenses by $211,000.
“As well, we have 11 new firefighters starting (in March 2021), who actually come in at a lower rate than the retiring ones,” Mainprize told BarrieToday. “That offsets some additional costs as well.
“So the addition of new staff and the addition of revenue was a big factor in driving down our increase for 2021.”
BFES has 144 operations firefighters with a total staff of 187, the remainder being in communications, prevention, training and administration. Mainprize said BFES is down seven firefighters right now, one will retire in March and three others shortly afterwards, which is why the 11 new hirings are needed.
Salaries and benefits are 97.2 per cent of the fire department’s operational budget. The projected 1.72 per cent increase reflects collective agreement obligations associated with salary and promotional increases, maintaining minimum staffing levels and replacement costs of temporary employees to backfill long-term absences.
Barrie firefighters respond to all emergencies in less than six minutes 91 per cent of the time, and their average emergency incident response time is 5.3 minutes. Barrie has fire stations on Dunlop Street West, Bell Farm Road, Big Bay Point Road, Ardagh Road, and King Street.
Next year’s BFES operating budget also includes a mental health and wellness program for staff, a continuation of a pilot program.
“It’s a long-term investment in our staff, which will pay off,” Mainprize said. “Staff have the opportunity to directly see a psychologist while on duty, do a yearly assessment, it provides any care that’s necessary, for those that require it and does an annual, ongoing evaluation of all our staff.”
Training and equipment obviously play a vital role in the effectiveness of emergency responders, and BFES is taking steps to improve both in their 2021 capital budget.
The city already has $250,000 put aside from the tax capital reserve to complete the Saunders Road training facility, and another $135,000 is required from the same reserve in 2021 for this $385,000 expenditure. Mainprize said it’s expected to be complete this year.
“The super-structure is actually built, which starts with engineering, the pad that it (the building) has to be on, the structure itself is up, so now we are going out to bid for all the staircases, internal and external, and the props inside the building,” he said.
“It’s an expansion of the site because we’ve built another building, but this money is to finish the larger training structure," the chief added.
The city is also going to finish buying a technical rescue truck in next year’s capital budget. There’s already $375,000 put aside from the fleet management reserve, and another $375,000 is required from the same reserve, to buy the $750,000 vehicle.
A large quantity of equipment in this vehicle is used during a technical rescue, such as high and low-angle rope rescue, confined space and ice/water rescues.
The new truck will replace one 26 years old which requires a combined $75,000 in refurbishing to better store equipment, and in body work. Due to its age the availability of parts is also becoming a concern.
Mainprize says this new truck was approved a few years ago, and should be delivered late 2021 or early 2022.
“Trucks we pay for in instalments, as they build them; when they hit a certain stage, we make the next payment on them,” he said. “This is all part of a larger capital fleet project that is starting in 2021, to significantly update our entire fleet.
"We haven’t bought a fire truck in several years.”
Mainprize said BFES has about 15 front-line trucks, with a lifespan of somewhere between 10 and 15 years.
“You need some flexibility, because you’re never sure exactly what’s going to break in any given year,” he said. “We pretty much know we need to buy one every single year.
“You pretty much need to have one in the queue at any given time.”
And Mainprize said the year the money is approved is not always the exact same year it’s spent, because of the time it takes to build these emergency vehicles.
“They don’t build them to stock them, at $1 million apiece,” he said. “They’re generally custom-built, one at a time. We just put a tender out and it has 11,000 line items of details. That is how specific and technical these vehicles are, which somewhat explains the enormous cost of them.”
Mainprize said what he calls a non-complicated fire truck build — a pumper or a technical rescue vehicle — takes about 10 to 12 months to build, while aerial or platform trucks can take 14 to 16 months.
At this stage in Barrie’s budget process, which sets both taxes and service levels, homeowners face a 3.59 per cent property tax increase in 2021, or paying another $160 on a typical house assessed at $367,550, up from $4,454 in taxes this year.
This would bring 2021’s taxes on that property to $4,614 — of which $424 would be for fire protection and emergency services.
Councillors will hear from their service partners — including Barrie police, paramedics, Barrie Public Library and the County of Simcoe — on Jan. 11, 2021, discuss property taxes and service levels on Jan. 18, and are scheduled to pass the operating/capital budget Jan. 25.
