THUNDER BAY — An arbitrator has awarded retroactive pay increases to Thunder Bay firefighters during the term of a collective agreement that's already expired.
The decision leaves a first-class firefighter currently earning about $4,000 a year more than a first-class constable with the Thunder Bay Police Service, but police officers can also expect a raise once their own expired contract is replaced.
According to the terms of the arbitration award, a firefighter's annual wage increased by about three per cent to a maximum $109,300 as of Jan. 1, 2023, and by another three per cent to $112,600 as of Jan. 2, 2024.
Platoon chiefs and captains are paid 134 per cent and 119 per cent of this salary respectively.
The arbitrator also granted firefighters a variety of benefit improvements including the addition of National Truth and Reconciliation Day as a paid holiday.
The collective agreement is for the two-year period of Jan. 1, 2023 to Dec. 31, 2024.
A first-class Thunder Bay police constable currently earns $108,531 under the terms of a collective agreement that expired at the end of 2023.
Negotiations on a new contract are currently underway between the Thunder Bay Police Association and the Thunder Bay Police Services Board.
A spokesperson for the Thunder Bay Professional Firefighters Association was not immediately available for comment Monday.
In his decision, arbitrator John Stout wrote that a fair and equitable wage adjustment for firefighters must reflect both the historical relationship with Thunder Bay Police and firefighters' salaries in other Ontario cities.
He said he agreed with a previous arbitration decision that found "consideration of the Thunder Bay Fire situation may not be restricted entirely to the experience of local police, particularly in a round of provincial fire bargaining where a number of freely negotiated fire settlements have run appreciably ahead of local police wage rates."
The City of Thunder Bay had already allocated money in its 2023, 2024 and 2025 operating budgets to account for the anticipated firefighters' awards, and expects to begin bargaining on the next collective agreement in the coming months.
In 2020, when an arbitrator gave firefighters pay increases and benefit improvements in a contract that expired at the end of 2022, the city said it valued its firefighters but expressed concern about the award.
Norm Gale, the city manager at the time, said it added to the increasing cost of providing emergency services, and reinforces "the need to address this fiscal challenge on a community and province-wide basis."
The statement said the city is working on the issue with other Ontario municipalities.
The Association of Municipalities of Ontario has maintained over the years that many arbitrators fail to take into account the economic circumstances of local municipal government and their fiscal health.
