Municipal Fire Services in Canada: a Preliminary Analysis
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FRASER RESEARCH BULLETIN May 2015 Municipal Spending $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ Municipal $3.8 Billion $ Fire Services (2008) $ in Canada: A Preliminary Analysis by Charles Lammam, Milagros Palacios, and Feixue Ren SUMMARY This bulletin examines trends in fire service Ontario for the period from 2000 to 2012 shows spending and the incidence of reported fires in that the number of fire-related calls fell by 15.3% Canada. It finds that the number of firefighters while non-fire related calls increased by 23.8%. and spending on fire services is increasing even as the incidence of reported fires is decreasing Data limitations preclude comparisons based on available data. between municipalities or conclusions about how to better control the growth in fire The most complete data is for the prov- service costs in Canada. Still, there is evi- ince of Ontario where between 1997 and 2012 dence that these expenditures are growing the number of firefighters increased by 36.3%, independently of the incidence of reported while the reported number of fires fell by 41.4%. fires and that municipal governments ought Part of the explanation for this inverse re- to look at how fire services are delivered as lationship is the different functions and activi- part of any efforts to better control overall ties that firefighters carry out. Evidence from spending. fraserinstitute.org FRASER RESEARCH BULLETIN 1 Municipal Fire Services in Canada: A Preliminary Analysis Introduction pal budgeting. We show that the number of Municipalities across the country are facing firefighters and spending on fire services is budgetary pressures. The situation is well-doc- increasing even as the incidence of reported umented. As an example, a recent study pub- fires is decreasing. This inverse relationship lished by the Fraser Institute found that munic- suggests that fire services expenditures should ipalities in British Columbia’s Metro Vancouver be closely examined as part of any effort to bet- area increased spending by 74.2% over the ter control overall municipal spending. We also 10-year period between 2002 and 2012 (Lam- discuss and suggest improvements in the way mam and MacIntyre, 2014). The rapid pace of that data on the incidence of fires and fire ser- the spending increase has far exceeded popula- vices spending is collected. tion growth and inflation. This call for improvements comes about because This type of spending growth is not unique to there are a number of data limitations. Historical British Columbia. We are witnessing concerns data on the number of firefighters and average about municipal expenditure growth across the hourly wages only covers a 16-year period from country. 1997 to 2012. There currently exists no aggre- gate data on fire services spending after 2008. Part of the trend has been driven by increasing There is also no single database with munici- expenditures on emergency services such as pal-level data on fire services expenditures. In police and fire services.1 Indeed, the president addition, there are limitations with respect to of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario data on the number of fires in Canada (nation- recently called the growth in emergency services ally and provincially) after 2002. The upshot spending “unsustainable” (Brennan, 2014, Aug. 18). is that none of these datasets cover the same time period. It is also important to note that, as Other research published by the Fraser Insti- will be discussed later in the paper, in addition tute (see Di Matteo, 2014) has studied the to responding to fire calls, firefighters carry out rise in police expenditures. The research has a number of different other tasks. Still, there is attempted to better understand which Cana- value in using what data are available to begin dian municipalities spend more efficiently in to understand changes in staffing levels, expen- this area and what steps could be taken to learn ditures, the number of fires, and how firefight- from best practices to get policing spending ing services are contributing to rising municipal under more control. costs in Canada. This study seeks to expand on this past There are four parts to this study. The first research to understand how the number of examines the growth in the number of fire- firefighters and fire services expenditures fighters in Canada over 16 years. The second are growing and placing pressure on munici- evaluates spending on fire services between 1988 and 2008. The third compares the rise in 1 Lammam and MacIntyre’s (2014) examination the number of firefighters and the growth in of government spending in the 21 municipalities fire services spending to the number of fires comprising Metro Vancouver finds that protective over a multi-year period. To this end, readily services (including firefighters) represents the larg- est share of municipal spending totaling over 30% in available data in Ontario provide an illustrative 2012. sense of the direction of growth in fire services fraserinstitute.org FRASER RESEARCH BULLETIN 2 Municipal Fire Services in Canada: A Preliminary Analysis relative to the incidence of reported fires. The 25.1%, from 25,900 to 32,400, from 1997 to 2012 final section presents the available data on the (Statistics Canada, 2014a).3 aggregate wage growth of firefighters in Canada. At the provincial level, Alberta has experienced This paper ultimately provides no policy rec- the greatest increase in the number of fire- ommendations. It is a preliminary study that fighters over this period, from 2,700 to 4,300, examines trends in firefighter resources and or 59.3%. This is followed by British Columbia fire service expenditures and the incidence of (a 43.8% increase), Manitoba (36.4%), Ontario reported fires. It does not assess the efficiency (36.3%), and to a lesser extent, Saskatchewan of fire services or reach conclusions about (14.3%). Quebec and the Atlantic region, by con- whether the evolving nature of fire services trast, reported an overall decrease in the num- activities and functions ought to be changed. ber of firefighters over the past 16 years. As mentioned, this is largely because data limi- Around the country, as of 2012, the major- tations make it difficult to derive conclusions ity of firefighters work in Ontario (42.9%), fol- about how to control the growth in fire service lowed by Quebec (16.4%), and British Columbia costs in Canada. Still, there is sufficient empiri- (14.2%). Census data enable us to evaluate the cal evidence to show that these expenditures distribution of firefighters by sector. In 2011, are growing independently of the incidence of the vast majority of firefighters (92.8%) worked reported fires and that municipalities ought in public administration, mainly in local gov- to look at how fire services are delivered as ernments (85.7%).4 They were also employed part of any efforts to control overall spending in the transportation sector (1.2%), and waste in the medium- and long-term. The research management and remediation services (1.3%)5 also highlights the need to improve national data quality. Otherwise citizens will not be able 3 Data on the number of firefighters is provided by to hold their public officials to account with Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey (LFS). To respect to municipal expenditures in general maintain confidentiality, the number of firefighters and the efficiency of fire services spending in in a given year corresponds to a two-year moving average. For simplicity, throughout this publication particular. we refer to the number of firefighters in a particular year (i.e. 1997), but in actuality the number is a two- The number of firefighters year moving average of that year and the next one (i.e. 1997 and 1998). The firefighters data include firefight- 2 Overall, the number of firefighters in Can- ers working in both the public and private sectors. ada has increased considerably over a 16-year 4 period. According to the Labour Force Survey, About 6.2% of the total number of firefighters works in the federal (2.6%) and the provincial gov- the number of firefighters in Canada rose by ernment (3.5%) (Statistics Canada, 2013a). 5 This industry comprises establishments primarily 2 All the statistics presented in this document are engaged in waste collection, treatment and dis- for career firefighters, which include full-time and/ posal services (land fill sites, incinerators, or other or part-time uniformed firefighters regardless of as- treatment or disposal facilities for non-hazardous signments, who might work in the public or private and hazardous waste); environmental remediation sector. Volunteer firefighters are not included. We services (clean-up of contaminated buildings, mine use “firefighters” throughout the rest of the paper to sites, soil or ground water, hazardous material re- mean “career firefighters.” moval, etc.); and septic tank pumping services. fraserinstitute.org FRASER RESEARCH BULLETIN 3 Municipal Fire Services in Canada: A Preliminary Analysis Figure 1: Canada—Comparative Growth in Population and Number of Firefighters as an Index, 1997 to 2012 (1997 = 100) 130 Firefighters Population 120 110 Index = 100 Index 100 90 80 Sources: Statistics Canada, 2013b and 2014a; calculations by authors. (Statistics Canada, 2013a). That most firefight- These data show that the number of firefight- ers in Canada are employed by local govern- ers has grown over the past 16 years in the ments is consistent with concerns about the aggregate faster than normal benchmarks, such extent to which fire services spending is plac- as population growth, that are typically used to ing pressure on municipal budgets. assess public staffing and expenditures. Firefighting spending Figure 1 illustrates the growth in the number of firefighters in Canada compared with the Data on fire services spending is also limited. growth in population between 1997 and 2012. Statistics Canada’s Financial Management Sys- The information in figure 1 is presented in the tem (FMS) is the only source that provides infor- form of an index in order to capture compara- mation on firefighting spending by local govern- tive changes in each variable.