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J.W.

(Jim) Sales Fire Chief

Fire Services 4330 Dufferin Street Toronto, Ontario M3H 5R9

Tel: 416 338-9051 Fax: 416 338-9060 jsales@toronto.ca

Proposed Operating Budget Reductions for Toronto Fire Services 2013 Operating Budget The 2013 proposed Base Budget for Toronto Fire Services includes $12.705 million in reductions required to meet the budget target of a 0% increase over the 2012 approved budget. Several options were reviewed by management to determine potential reductions that did not impact staffing, however, with salaries and benefits making up 92% of actual spending, it is impossible to achieve the required savings without staff reductions. Non-salary reductions totaling $2.008 million were taken before any consideration of staff reductions. Non staff proposals include the following: 1. Absorb Economic Factors. 2. Line-By-Line Review, resulting in a reduction of $0.021 based on actual expenditure trends from 2009 2011 3. Absorb 50% of Alternate Rate Budget Increase Request 4. Absorb the Cost of Furniture for a New Fire Station at Midland and Eglinton 5. Eliminate Fleet Reserve Contribution Increase Staff Reductions Reduction options to achieve the balance required include the deletion of three existing vacant nonunion administrative assistant positions (representing a savings of $166.1 thousand), and 101 full time positions from Local 3888 in Fire Services. These Local 3888 reductions are proposed as follows: 1. Re-organization of Support Section Staff and Supervisors - The reorganization of support sections will allow for various functions to be combined and will provide opportunities to streamline services. The re-organization will include: a) the elimination of the Recruit Training Section of Professional Development and Training (PDT); b) merging of Health and Safety with Emergency Planning; and c) merging of Public Information with Recruitment and Outreach. Current staff will be crosstrained to deal with various additional responsibilities. This re-alignment will bring more consistency to the ratio of staff and facilities per District Chief within support sections, which is currently the focus of a corporate review. With the elimination of the Recruit Training Section, Fire Services will rely on Captains from other sections of Professional Development and Training to be assigned to the Fire Academy when Fire Services has a recruit class in training. There may also be an increase in overtime for Training Officers in general as the Recruit Training section augments instructional delivery to Operations Division staff in other training courses.
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The re-organization will result in the deletion of ten permanent positions and the conversion of one Captains position to a first class fire fighter position to be permanently assigned to the Mechanical Division to be responsible for face fit testing, an important Health and Safety issue for TFS (currently staffed through modified duties when available). The specific deletions are as follows: a) Elimination of Recruit Induction (one DC and six Captains) b) Merge Health and Safety and Emergency Planning (reduction of one DC) c) Merge Public Information and Recruitment and Outreach (reduction of one DC) d) Delete vacant Captains position in Public Information; create fire fighter position in Mechanical. This staff reduction is expected to be accomplished through attrition, although staff reassignments will be required in the shorter term. 2. Deletion of Staff within the Operations Division removal of five front line emergency response vehicles from the operations division on a permanent basis. This represents a reduction of 83 operations staff, and reassignment of the remaining 17 staff to assist with staffing levels, which may keep other vehicles in the division in service on a daily basis. The 2012 approved operating budget included a significant gapping budget that requires vehicles to be taken out of service on a daily basis. Through 2012 (to date), there have been an average of 5.6 trucks out of service every day in Toronto. The specific trucks taken out of service change on a daily basis, resulting in a number of issues with staff movements, and affecting response times City-wide, with different areas of the City affected differently, each day. This proposal seeks to permanently identify the trucks out of service, to quantify the specific service changes, and to minimize the staff movements resulting from carrying a significant number of vacancies. The overall impact on response times City-wide will be marginal, as an equivalent number of vehicles are already removed from the system daily in our current statistics. The five vehicles proposed for deletion include: # of Annual Runs 2010 2009 2008 1,342 1,335 1,331 1,560 2,145 1,603 698 689 653 936 829 996 1,599 1,735 1,486

Vehicle P424 P413 A215 A324 P213

Address 426 Runnymede Rd. 1549 Albion Rd. 5318 Lawrence Ave. E. 840 Gerrard St. E. 7 Lapsley Rd.

2011 1,350 1,676 720 908 1,690

2007 1,333 1,896 725 1,032 1,500

Reductions can be achieved through the elimination of vacant positions, resulting in no layoff of existing staff. Staff assigned to these vehicles will be transferred to existing vacant positions on other front line apparatus.

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The removal of P424 also represents the closure of the fire station (Station 424). This has been recommended through various over the years, studies starting with the Toronto Fire Department Master Fire Plan completed in 1987. In that plan, the former City recognized the service overlap areas of the former Station 16 (83 Deforest Road) and Station 31 (426 Runnymede Road). The proposal at the time was to close these two stations and construct one new one, located near the intersection of Bloor and Runnymede. This same recommendation was reiterated in Toronto's Fire Plan '94. The 1999 KPMG Fire Station Location study (completed following amalgamation) recommended that Station 424 simply be closed, as no land had ever been identified to accomplish the combining of the stations. This recommendation was modified by staff and approved by Council to revert to the previous plan to merge the station areas of the newly renumbered Stations 424 (former Station 31) and 425 (former Station 16). In 2007, Toronto Fire Services conducted a new Master Fire Planning process, which noted that the service overlap areas identified in the 1999 KPMG Study remained relevant. The modified recommendation which included closing Stations 323 (formerly T26 153 Chatham Avenue) and 424 (formerly T31 426 Runnymede Road) was dismissed at that time as no land has ever been located to accomplish the build of a new station. The 2007 Master Fire Plan reverted to the original recommendation that Station 424 simply be closed, given its service area overlap with other Stations in the area, and the limited impact its closure would have on response times. The vehicle located in the station was identified as the vehicle that would be moved to the station planned for construction at Sunnybrook. This station is currently approved in the capital plan, to be completed in 2022. When that occurs, TFS will require this vehicle and staff to be added back into the system. Through the 2014 Budget process, the capital request for this station will be revised to include the operating impact of a vehicle and appropriate staff. TFS had included in its resource base sufficient apparatus to re-allocate vehicles to new station developments included in the approved capital plan, as provided in the 1999 KPMG study and the 2007 Master Fire Plan. The removal of vehicles as a result of the 2013 reductions will eliminate TFS' ability to staff new stations in the future within its current complement. New stations included in the ten year capital plan will be re-submitted in the 2014 budget process to include the operating impact of a vehicle and appropriate staff. 3. Elimination of one District in North Command - The elimination of District 12 will result in the deletion of eight permanent positions, four District Chiefs (DC) (one per platoon), and four Fireground Incident Technicians (FITS) (one per DC). The tasks and responsibilities currently assigned to these positions will be reassigned to the other three District Chiefs in North Command. In 2011 District 12 responded to 1,613 calls, down from 1,744 in 2010. These runs will be redistributed to the three other DC's within the North Command, or absorbed by DC's in other Commands where the calls are close to the Command borders. The projected increase in call volumes for the other District Chiefs within North Command will bring up call volume levels at the same level as some of the busier District Chiefs within the City.

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4. Convert Four Fire Fighting Captains Assigned to the Fire Boat to Four Fire Cause Investigators - Fire Services will convert four Operational Firefighting Captains assigned to the fire boat to four Fire Investigators in the Fire Prevention Division. This reduction will make better use of Fire Services' existing staff resources as well as result in net savings by eliminating four positions at the rank of Captain, and replacing these positions with four positions at the rank of first class firefighter. Currently, the captains assigned to the fire boat are trained to use the firefighting equipment on the boat supported by a boost crew dispatched from a fire station. This practice essentially results in two firefighting captains on the boat, the one that is permanently assigned and the one that is dispatched with the boost crew. TFS has reviewed its requirements and determined that as a result of the cross-training provided to staff, the boost crew captain is sufficient for the firefighting operation of the boat, assisted by a marine engineer that is permanently assigned to the boat, a Transport Canada requirement that a trained staff in boat operations should be present, separate from firefighting operations. Any negative impact of the removal of these staff is offset by the positive impact of the addition of four fire cause investigators. Fire investigations are an important component of fire prevention. The FPPA indicates that investigations are to be conducted at all fires and explosions. Investigations are used to determine origin, cause and circumstances of fires/explosions, assess code compliance, assess fire suppression effectiveness and to determine the effectiveness of built in suppression features. Fire investigation may appear to be reactive, however, the information gathered can be pro-active in determining, developing and validating fire protection services. The information is a valuable tool in developing an effective fire prevention program for the City. Further, the findings and information from fire investigations is necessary and beneficial when updating and revising public fire safety education programs. The four positions would be added to the Fire Prevention staff complement and will function as specialized inspectors when not performing investigation duties. With the deletion of the fire fighting Captains assigned to the Fire Boat, the station responsibilities will be reassigned to the Captain of Pumper 334 while emergency operation responsibilities will be assigned to the Captain of the responding boost crew dispatched from a fire station. The elimination of these permanent positions is expected to be accomplished through the elimination of vacant positions, and will involve the transfer of staff to other vacant positions within the division.

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