PORT HARDY, B.C.- The District of Port Hardy has released the results from a survey concerning the pay of volunteer firefighters in the region.
Heather Nelson-Smith, Director of Corporate Services with the District, said council was approached by the fire department in March 2017.
“We did a survey at the point of the membership, requesting some information on how they felt about their commitment level to the department, and if financial compensation would increase their commitment,” she said.
“Basically, council looked at some scenarios and then, as a result of that, actually wanted to go out to the public and see how the public felt about it, and that’s why the survey was put together.”
Nelson-Smith said 75 per cent of people that took the survey were in favour of providing financial compensation to the Port Hardy Volunteer Fire Department.
“Of those people that said that they were willing to pay, the dollar range was anywhere between $10 and $30 a year additional what they would be willing to spend.”
She said that for businesses, that came out to approx. $55 to $165 per year.
“This is a monetary compensation for their (firefighters) time to attend training, fire calls or hall duties for the actual department,” she said.
“It’s not a pay that equates to an hourly wage, so they wouldn’t become employees. This is just like an honorarium that’s basically compensating them for their time.”
On Tuesday, Jan 23rd, the financial plan will be presented to the public. That takes place at council chambers at 6:30 p.m.
“This will be touched on as part of the financial plan going forward, and of course the implementation for the fire department members would begin as of January 1st of this year,” she said.
As far as residential impact, the annual dollar increase to taxation for the service is $36,296. That equates to a 1.45 per cent tax increase.
“For our residents, it’s about $7.32 per $100,000 of assessment, which definitely keeps us line with what the residents had said about paying anywhere between $10 and $30 annually,” Nelson-Smith said.
The commercial business rate will come out to $24.14 per $100,000.
Nelson-Smith said that will keep business owners in line with the $55 and $165 they said they would be willing to pay on the survey.
226 people took the survey, and the majority were residential property owners. The operational budget for the department is listed at around $220,000.
Results of the survey can be viewed through this link.
