Hiring question on FB, my reply

COMMENT POST BY RED DEER FIREFIGHTERS ON FACEBOOK TODAY:
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"On August 25th at 6:05pm, Red Deer Firefighters responded to a structure fire in Station 1’s area.
Crews arrived quickly and made a fast knockdown on the fire, preventing it from spreading further.
But calls like this demand multiple resources: Engine 1, Engine 2, Engine 3, Ladder 5, the Platoon Chief, EMS Supervisor, and Red Deer Medic 1.
That leaves just one single engine to cover the entire rest of the city. And when Engine 2 isn’t staffed, as happens far too often under the City’s unsafe dynamic staffing policy, there are no engines left at all to protect the community while crews are tied up at a major incident.
This is what a lack of depth looks like. It’s not just about one fire, it’s about the risk created when the rest of the city is left unprotected.
4 Firefighters. Every truck. Every call. Every day. Red Deer deserves better." -Red Deer Firefighters

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MY REPLY TO POST
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Along with proper funding and equipment to meet our city’s RDES needs, we must increase fire-medic permanent staffing by 25%. That means moving from 194 to 242 fire-medics, rather than the current 'temporary' addition of 12 EMT-only staff and just 2 permanent fire-medics (bringing the total to 206). We should also begin planning for another station within the next decade. Our population is expected to increase to 151,000 by 2035 (we need 6-7 vs 4.5 fire stations to meet that demand of mostly multi-storey/multi-family units like Capstone).

How will we pay for it? Well, even if you pay each new hire $105,000* (the first class rate not probationary) that's $4,830,000*. We paid $11,300,000* to rehabilitate the 'Homeless Highway' (the old CPR Bridge that CPR abandoned in the 1990s). New hires are "about" $56,000* so we're talking $2,680,000*. The overtime in 2024 was $3,200,000*. (1,900 OT shifts). Instead, the current City Council cut the RDES budget by $600,000* this year. aka 'stop wasting money on vanity projects.'

Plan Smart, Build Strong, And Save For The Future!!
www.kevinmklerks.ca