Comment 50725

By Shempatolla (registered) - website | Posted October 28, 2010 at 13:12:35

Seems I've hit a nerve.

"I would also like to address overspending at the union level. Why are unionized employees getting pay rises when the rest of us are taking pay cuts or getting laid off? I want municipal employees to be well looked after but this needs to be commensurate with the economy and the tax payer’s experience. "

" also would like someone to address our biggest budget – police services and the fire department. Are we getting value for money? Can we scale back or improve the efficiency of these services? But nobody is addressing this. These departments are untouchable – even by Ford. Cost cutting and government efficiency is not the exclusive mandate of ‘the right.’ "

I'll take a stab at these. I work for the Toronto Fire Service. So I can only speak to this department specifically. In terms of budget we are the city's third largest behind the Police Service and the Social Service/Homeless Office.

In terms of union costs... I have gone as many as 4 years without a pay raise or while working under a collective agreement that had expired and not been renegotiated. If memory serves 3 contracts that I have worked under were arbitrated. The remainder negotiated. As far as value for service the citizens of Toronto are served by the fourth largest fire department in North America. Complement is mandated by a set of standards determined by the NFPA and the insurance industry which mandates the number of firefighters per 100000 citizens. I can tell you that in the 20 years I have worked on the Dept we have always struggled to maintain a minimum complement and frequently if not regularly are well below by at least 100-150 firefighters. Compensation while decent is still well below what a comparable professional in the private sector in the mining or oil and gas industry makes.

The Fire Service is far from untouchable. The budget process is no easier on senior department staff than any other city department. The only thing that is different is that if they get it wrong, bad things happen, then they have to answer for that too. Their is waste certainly, but I would say not at the sharp end. There is a ghastly duplication of services at the administrative level between Fire and EMS.

"Again your ideology is getting in the way of the argument."

Really? It would seem your ideology or sense of propriety is getting in the way of the argument. Rob Ford won the election. Period. He did so in the face of a very well funded smear campaign spearheaded by the largest newspaper in the country, the nations public broadcaster, special interest groups and every left leaning liberal hack that could be stuck in front of a microphone or a camera. To suggest that I am bitter for some reason is non sensical. You should re read your posts. I'm not the one that sounds angry. He beat the hand picked candidate of the establishment and kicked his ass. To imply that he was elected simply because people were emotionally out of touch or their wasn't another viable candidate is insulting to the 380000 plus people that voted for him.

Personally and for the Fire Department the Miller era was not a bad one. There are a multitude of reasons for that. To begin the city was read the riot act by its insurers and advisory groupls over decrepit fire trucks, under staffing, poor morale. They were mandated to make those improvements. Second, after the Mel Lastman reign our association and management forged a much better relationship with city council.

Essential services are not an area the public and tax payers should take issue with David Miller over. He is by and large a very good and decent man. Where his tenure was a disaster is in the areas of fiscal responsibility and public expenditures on extremely poorly thought out plans and policies that have resulted in the wasting of millions and millions of dollars.

It is to this FACT that Rob Ford spoke. It struck a chord and we have the results of that message. Now we will see what happens.

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