The city’s complement of career firefighters is slated to grow by four members next year, with the city’s elected officials greenlighting the expense during their Dec. 18 budget meeting.
Staff had requested eight, but an amendment by Ward 6 Coun. René Lapierre cut it in half, punting the four-member balance for consideration during 2026 budget deliberations.
Lapierre clarified his key motivation in approving additional firefighters was to help lessen overtime hours and keep staff safe.
“We have a concern with the amount of overtime hours we have and only having a few people taking on overtime,” he said, noting that the lion’s share of overtime is being done by 35 per cent of career firefighters.
The city spent approximately $2.4 million on firefighters’ overtime last year, which exceeded their budget by $1.4 million.
Greater Sudbury Fire Services needs 24 career firefighters on shift at any given time, so every truck has at least four people available to respond to calls.
Taking into account the number of firefighters unavailable on average, Deputy Chief Jesse Oshell said, “I know that I’m going to have seven individuals off every shift.”
This, against a current authorized staffing level of 112 full-time career firefighters.
City council’s decision to hire four additional full-time firefighters was one of two major decisions to come out of the Dec. 18 budget meeting. Some other notable decisions include:
- Rejecting Ward 11 Coun. Bill Leduc’s amendment to fund The Spot, the city’s supervised consumption site, for an additional six months to keep it open. As such, the site remains slated to close by the end of January.
- Voting 8-3 in favour of Public Health Sudbury and Districts’ 2024-25 budgets, which included an overall 17-per-cent municipal funding increase, bringing it to a 2025 expense of just greater than $10 million.
- Hiring two additional emergency vehicle technicians to help prepare the city’s 22 ambulances, six paramedic response units and eight community paramedic vehicles for daily deployment. The two positions replace two existing part-time roles, who operate alongside two full-time emergency vehicle technicians.
Ward 4 Coun. Pauline Fortin also tabled a few amendments, seconded by Ward 5 Coun. Michael Parent, to reduce various areas of expenditure by 25 per cent across the board (sponsorships, advertising, grants, overtime hours), but withdrew each of them when numerous unanswered questions and potential implications were raised.
Budgeted overtime, for example, is typically overspent “by a significant measure” each year, city general manager of corporate services Kevin Fowke said.
Advertising expenditures are linked to corporate communications strategies, such as volunteer firefighter recruitment, and fluctuate depending on the need to communicate.
“I understand the spirit of this, however, communication has always been a challenge and we are finally at a point where we are communicating well,” Ward 12 Coun. Joscelyne Landry-Altmann said. “More discussion is warranted on something like this.”
Alongside withdrawing her amendments, Fortin pledged to raise these issues as potential reports to be considered by city council members next year.
Budget deliberations began on Dec. 12, when the city’s elected officials tackled a handful of budget items, unanimously approving the following:
- 2024-25 police budgets with a total increase of approximately 15 per cent and the hiring of 26 additional staff members.
- Conservation Sudbury’s budget is slated to increase by $207,590 to $1.37 million, equating an 18-per-cent increase.
- Greater Sudbury Public Library budgets will increase by $798,136 to $10.06 million, or a nine-per-cent increase.
- Water/wastewater rates were cleared to jump by 4.8 per cent in both 2024 and 2025.
During the Dec. 18 meeting, city council voted 9-2 against keeping the city’s supervised consumption site open for an additional six months.
At the close of Dec. 18 deliberations, the city’s elected officials had settled on tax levy increase of 6.6 per cent for both 2024 and 2025.
Future amendments by city council members are anticipated to further alter these numbers during the Dec. 19 budget meeting, which is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m.
The meeting can be viewed in-person at Tom Davies Square or livestreamed by clicking here.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
