We’ve all heard the expression, ‘the numbers don’t lie,’ but whoever came up with that saying did not have to moderate a debate between the Town of Cochrane and the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF).
Heading down an imminent path toward arbitration, the town and the IAFF are jockeying for position, underscoring statistics that best make their own respective cases.
Cochrane’s IAFF president, Jared Wallace, has highlighted that fact that local fire services attended 768 individual calls during the 2012 calendar year, of which includes a variety of incidents including fires, vehicle collisions, emergency medical assists, rescues and false alarms.
Wallace said, “2012 proved to be a record-setting year for calls in Cochrane and I expect the same rate of growth will continue for 2013.”
Both Wallace and the town point out that since 2007, total call volume has increased by approximately 49 per cent, but the town emphasized that that number is inclusive of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and EMS support calls.
“Over the past five years, fire-call volumes have both increased and decreased year to year, resulting in a net increase of seven per cent in fire calls,” an email from the town’s communications department disclosed.
More detailed statistics from the town’s protective services and human resources departments indicate the type of calls that were dispatched in 2012 as follows: medical response (341); rescue/motor vehicle response (121); false alarms (152); burning complaints and hazardous materials (84); and all types of fires (70).
Call volumes do not include public education, safety code inspections or investigations.
Wallace spoke to emergency medical assists, explaining, “In Cochrane, the fire department only attends the highest priority medical calls as determined by the 911 operator.”
Wallace said other fire departments in the area attend all calls that require an ambulance, but the Cochrane department only attends those that are ‘life-threatening emergencies.’
“If we attended medical calls in the same fashion as Rocky View County or Redwood Meadows,” he said, “our call volume would easily approach 3,000 calls per year.”
Wallace also believes that with the rapidly growing population in Cochrane, and the infrastructure demands that entails, the fire department’s plate will only get more full.
“With the continuing growth the town will receive over the foreseeable future,” Wallace said, “it is logical that the fire service, not unlike other town services, will need to grow to keep pace.”
The town and IAFF had endured 18 months of negotiations prior to the New Year with no settlement being reached.
Wallace has said that the IAFF would continue to try and find a reasonable solution to the stalemate, while the town has said both sides have made ‘genuine efforts’ to reach an agreement, but they now trust the arbitration process will find a fair middle ground.
The town’s original offer to the IAFF would have raised municipal property taxes 5.37 per cent. Council passed the 2013 budget on Dec. 10 despite trepidations over what would result from the arbitration process with the IAFF.
“Now is not the time to talk about service level reductions,” Wallace proclaimed. “Now is the time to plan effectively for the future so that the emergency services in Cochrane can adequately keep pace with the inevitable increase in calls for service.”
