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Mono questions fee structure for Orangeville Fire services

September 28, 2023   ·   1 Comments

By JAMES MATTHEWS, LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER

Mono council doesn’t look keenly on the new fee structure proposed in the offered Orangeville Fire Protection Services Agreement.

And council decided during its Sept. 26 meeting to request an Orangeville Fire Department delegation appear at a future meeting to explain the fee hikes.

In June 2019, the Orangeville Fire Service Agreements was amended from a per-call billing to a flat rate. The agreement was for 2019-22 on a flat rate basis with four installments per year.

The revised agreement is for an additional four years and continues to be based on an annual flat rate.

The new agreement, which will run until 2026, has a 26.32 per cent increase in the first year for a $1,004,643 fee, followed by annual increases of 3.24 per cent or $1,037,221 in 2024, then 2.74 per cent or $1,065,687 in 2025, and 2.75 per cent or a $1,095,043 fee in the final year.

Councillor Elaine Capes said during council’s Sept. 26 meeting that, when Orangeville first broached the 26 per cent increase in the first year, Mono council had intentions to ask that the amount be “evened out.”

“They said no,” Mayor John Creelman noted.

“Very collaborative,” Capes said, sarcastically.

The increased fees could have been attributed in some part to the Town of Orangeville’s need to build a new fire station. That plan has since been scrapped by the neighbouring municipality, but the inflated fee structure still stands.

“And that’s the part that really bothers me is that, presumably, a portion of that was towards the fire hall, another portion of that (fee increase) would have been towards new equipment,” Creelman said.

The mayor said that much of the extra 26 per cent has already been paid by Mono.

“Because we’re far enough along in the year that it’s sort of a moot point now,” Creelman said.

“Except that we can claw back the next few years,” Capes said.

“My understanding is that the 26 per cent increase was largely because the Orangeville Fire Department hired eight new full-time firefighters for evening work rather than just rely on volunteer firefighters,” Deputy Mayor Fred Nix said. “They now have full-time employees overnight.

“And they claim because of that we get better service. I don’t want to dispute that, but that was their argument going forward.”

Coun. Ralph Manktelow didn’t dispute the claim of better service. But, he said, Mono was offered a pair of options, and they chose the second service plan, which was available before Orangeville hired the eight new firefighters.

“I look at this number as being far too much,” Manktelow said. “I think we should go back at them again and tell them we’re very unhappy with this. They should get a strong message.”

Mono’s heavy 2024 municipal operating budget will contain more than $1 million for Orangeville services alone, he said.

“I don’t think Orangeville is supplying 65 per cent or so of the houses or units,” Manktelow said. “I don’t think they are, so it’s disproportionate cost from Orangeville.”

“It’s an awful lot of money,” Coun. Melinda Davie said.

She isn’t certain about fire service costs from Caledon, but she said fire departments in Rosemont and Shelburne have had “ginormous increases.”

“It’s coming,” she said. “Population is increasing. The amount of work they (firefighters) are doing is increasing.”

Davie said she doesn’t agree that there’s a need for Mono to “push back.”

“I think it’s just clear that things are costing way more money,” Davie said. “But I’d like more detail about it all. I’d like to know that … we’re truly getting for Mono the service that we want.”

Creelman said there’s another side to the issue: Salaries for Orangeville Fire Department personnel.

“They apparently are not tied to the town’s stated COLA (cost-of-living adjustment) of 2.0 or 2.5 per cent this year,” Creelman said. “They’re negotiated independently. So my question would be, What’s the presumption vis a vis salaries in the numbers that we have received?”

And, Creelman said, will Mono be hit with another fee structure increase if Orangeville discovers they’ve lowballed salary increases to be won through negotiations with the Orangeville firefighters?

Nix said Mono would have to build and staff its own fire department should the town cut ties with Orangeville over a monetary disagreement.

“So we’re really helpless,” Nix said, adding that Mono has some voice in Rosemont’s and Shelburne’s fire service budgets. “With Orangeville, we don’t.”

An impending Dufferin County service delivery study will be interesting Nix and Creelman agreed.

“I think the options are remain the same or a county fire department,” Creelman said. “My hope is that if the decision is to stay the same, some very strong marching orders are given to the local fire departments to cooperate on joint purchasing and joint training.

“No more excuses, no more single purchases of bunker suits and so forth, which has gone on for years over the objection of many of us.”

Creelman suggested council defer a decision on the fire service agreement until more information can be provided by Orangeville.

“Unless we need to pass something today,” Creelman said. “Are they [Orangeville] going to cut us off?”

“They have already asked when it [a decision] would be coming,” said Fred Simpson, the town’s clerk. “They thought it was coming last meeting and it didn’t.”

The fire service agreement was on the agenda for the last Mono council meeting, but time constraints pushed it to the Sept. 26 meeting.

“Orangeville will certainly be querying what the council’s plans are with respect to the fire services,” Simpson said. “We’re going to be almost a full year into a four-year contract.”

“I don’t know why they’re worried because they’re getting paid,” Creelman said.

Given that a municipality is bound by law to provide a firefighting service, Nix said the Town of Mono has no choice but to accept Orangeville’s offered agreement.

“We don’t have any choice,” Nix said. “We have to sign the agreement with Orangeville.”

“I appreciate we are responsible,” said Capes. “But we also are responsible to the taxpayers to make sure that we are paying a reasonable amount of money for the services that we are getting.”

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