Cortes Island Fire Department needs more money

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Cortes Island residents will most likely be paying a great deal more for their fire department this year. The Cortes Island Fire Department (CIFFA) is asking the SRD for about $127,000 more in 2023. CIFFA hopes to obtain $381,000 from property taxes.

Their request was received as correspondence at the Wednesday, Feb 22, meeting of the SRD Board.

Cortes Island Regional Director Mark Vonesch prefaced this submission by stating,  “CIFFA has submitted a budget that is significantly larger than previous years that will cost the average landowner on Cortes approximately $250 extra per year. This increase brings the department up to similar standards as other fire departments in the region, and is the cost of running a service that will meet the newly released provincial standards that the department needs to be in compliance with by the end of the year.”

Earlier that morning, Cortes Currents asked Chris Walker, Vice President of CIFFA for an explanation.

CW: “There are two main reasons our operating budget has to be larger, increased regulation and inflation.”

“Increased regulation which affects training, our duty officers, and our Fire Chief. Every fire department in British Columbia has to meet provincial standards, even very small ones like ours. Recently, the province has come out with new training standards that fire departments must implement within the next year.”

“The Cortes Island Firefighting Association agrees with these new regulations and the higher standards, but they are significantly increasing our operating costs in terms of training and salaries. In advance of March, 2024, we will be required to have completed new training for all drivers, team leaders and incident commanders.”

“To meet the increasing training demands CIFFA proposes hiring a part-time Training Officer. In 2023, our costs for training are projected to increase 221% over last year in order to remain in compliance.”

“Our fire department has to have a Duty Officer on call 24 hours a day, who is able to respond within five minutes to any emergency. This responsibility is normally shared between the Chief and qualified senior officers. This position requires significant extra training and experience and carries great responsibility. Most volunteer fire departments offer a daily honorarium for being on call, including ours. In 2022, we increased the honorarium from a hundred to $150 per day and are now proposing to increase that payment to $200 a day. Being a duty officer has an impact on the individual's regular employment. In recognition of this, we are working to offer an amount that makes this commitment worthwhile. We are hoping that this increase will help incentivize more members to take on the training responsibility and time commitment associated with this position.”

“We are currently seeking a new Fire Chief and we may need to increase the salary offer in the area of $90,000 a year ,or more. In order to attract a qualified applicant and in order to match the Chief’s salary being offered incomparable depart elsewhere. For comparison, a firefighter in Campbell River can now make upwards of $120,000 a year, and that's just a firefighter.”