Parlow touts BFES’ fiscal shape

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This article was published 13/11/2024 (570 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

While the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service is projecting a nearly $13-million budget overrun this fiscal year due to injury claims, overtime and staffing gaps, Brandon Fire and Emergency Services is in far better shape, according to Fire Chief Terry Parlow.

“We’ve been very fortunate over the last few years,” Parlow said Tuesday afternoon. “City council and also Shared Health have supplied us with additional staffing. We were having some challenges a couple years ago, but fortunately with the staff that city council and Shared Health provided us … we will be, I believe, on or under budget for our overtime. And also, you know, though the call volumes are increasing, staff are able to respond and make sure that they’re not overrun.”

This year, Parlow says BFES is currently under budget. That has been helped by the fact that call volumes are manageable with the staffing numbers they currently have. He credits a change in workplace culture in helping to keep staffing levels stable.

“What we’ve been trying to do is build a more positive culture, so that has helped immensely. Staff are at times very busy, but you know having a better work situation — obviously staffing helps. But having that positive culture helps as well.”

In the last three years, Parlow says, the service has added approximately 20 new firefighter-paramedics. At the same time, the service is acquiring new staff for the community paramedic detention units being constructed at the Brandon Police Service station on 10th Street.

“We are working with the province to actually have that training. We have the staff hired. We’re just waiting for the last component, which is training them to work within the cells,” Parlow said.

Last year, the province provided ongoing funding for new staff to join BFES, as well as funding for an additional five firefighter-paramedics to staff the BPS cells, as part of expanded ambulance service funding announced last year.

Parlow said that call volumes increased last year by about 1,000 over the previous year, mostly as a result of the increase in airport transfers. While there have been a number of fire calls over the last year, he says there hasn’t been a particularly significant increase in service calls to attend building fires.

“They’ve been fairly consistent.”

According to figures provided by Parlow on Tuesday, the number of calls for 2024 was expected to be around 9,500, significantly higher than the actual number of calls in 2023, which reached 8,750 — an expected rise of 750.

Earlier this month, the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service projected a nearly $13-million budget overrun in 2024.

The Winnipeg Free Press reported that the department projected over-expenditures of $15.5 million for fire services and $932,000 for EMS. The total was believed to fall to $12.8 million when higher revenues were factored in.

The WFPS was expected to ask Winnipeg City Council’s finance committee to approve the overrun at a Nov. 12 meeting. Winnipeg previously approved an annual operating budget of $233 million for the WFPS.

In the City of Brandon’s 2024 budget, Brandon Firefighter and Paramedic Services had a budget allotment of $10.1 million, with overtime projected to be 1,500 hours less than experienced in 2023. Sick-time use was projected to be about 500 hours less than 2023.

“Additional staffing provided by city council and Shared Health over the last two years has reduced staff burnout,” Parlow noted via email yesterday. “Stressing the importance of a strong team and a more positive culture has also impacted our department and I believe it shows.”

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