Fire Chief asking Board to consider full-time firefighter role

Derek Kilbourn

Sounder News

Gabriola Fire Chief Will Sprogis is asking the Fire Board to consider creating a new full-time role within the Gabriola Volunteer Fire Department.

Sprogis brought the issue up during his regular report at the December 4 meeting of the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District Board.

He said the information would need to go to the Finance committee.

Sprogis explained due to the wage increases for the Duty Officer, the proposal is to merge te Duty Officer and Senior Day Firefighter into a new full-time role.

Sprogis did not provide a comparison of the current wage costs of the Duty Officer and Senior Day Firefighter roles to what a full-time firefighter role would be.

The Duty Officer hourly wage is currently proposed to increase by 45% in next year’s budget. This increase will bring it in line with the $17.40/hr minimum wage in BC.

All wage levels for the department will increase by $3 an hour in 2025 if the current proposed budget is approved by the Province, an increase of 15% to 20% depending on rank and training level.

The total wages and benefits for the department that will increase from $431,458 in 2024 to $540,983 in 2025. This total includes the wages and benefits for all three full-time positions, as well as the other wages and benefits paid out to the fire department members.

The three existing full-time positions are the Fire Chief, Deputy Chief, and Corporate Officer. These positions are budgeted to increase from  $80,000 to $82,000 for the Fire Chief; $41,958 to $63,100 for the Deputy Chief; and $49,500 to $75,000 for the Corporate Officer.

Combining wages and benefits, the 2025 budgets for these full-time positions are $100,609 (Fire Chief); $79,089 (Deputy Chief), and $92,759 (Corporate Officer).

The 10-year long range plan for the department projects the entire Department’s Wages and Benefits budget to reach $963,476 in 2034.

The Board approved sending the request from Sprogis to the Finance Committee.

Trustee Kent Moen said, “we’ll have to chew on that and just, you know, talk with the chief about the rationales behind it.”