Overtime Funding, Costs (reply to an email)...

3. What are your thoughts on the current strategy to reduce overtime costs for fire and emergency first responders? Do you believe it is effective or in need of revision?

At the Firefighters Forum, I talked about how hiring more firemedics in Red Deer is the best way to cut overtime and keep everyone safe. Last year, we spent over $3.2 million on overtime—that’s enough to hire roughly 25 to 35 new firemedics. My goal is to bring in 50 new firemedics by the end of 2026.

Above all else, we need to listen to the association and the boots on the ground about how we can make things run more efficiently without compromising public safety. I have never heard, in my life, of a city or town closing a fire station part-time simply to reduce staffing. We are lucky to have a top-rated firemedic service that is currently able to bridge the gap—but if we had a serious fire in our city, with old building codes grandfathered in, there is a real risk of lives being lost with the current staffing and coverage strategy. Imagine if one of the seniors’ high-rises or one of the Capstone high-rises caught fire—would we have the staff available at 2 a.m. to save lives?

Instead of addressing the staffing issue properly, the city responded with a “dynamic staffing” model and a $600,000 cut to the budget, all while keeping a fire chief who received a 99% non-confidence vote from 87%* of the association membership. This is not effective leadership.

People often compare our spending to Edmonton, but it’s not the same. Edmonton has over a thousand staff and more than 30 stations, each division separate for fire, rescue, and medical services. Here in Red Deer, we have fewer than 200 staff and fewer stations, and our firefighters are firemedics, which is more efficient, safer, and gets help to people faster—sometimes saving lives. The budget for emergency services should never be compared percentage-wise to parks, as incumbent candidate Victor Doerksen did. A human life has far greater value than a tree.

We can pay for this and move forward without raising taxes by not wasting money, using a $1 saved for $1 new spending strategy, streamlining departments, and downloading non-core services to third-party organizations through contracting—examples include tourism, economic development promotion, culture and heritage programming, the sale of vacant public lands and buildings, and (as one candidate mentioned) the sale of the electric company while maintaining a shareholder stake in it. Even when fire and medical services are combined, AHS can still help with equipment and training. Investing in more firemedics and planning ahead means faster response times and a safer community for everyone.