To the Editor,
Re: Firefighters’ wages dominate municipal employee payroll, June 21.
Mayor John Ruttan needs to get some backbone. I’m ashamed that I voted for him and insulted for myself and all the other hardworking and underpaid citizens of Nanaimo.
His statement that “he isn’t in a position to comment on the firefighter’s wages because they are at the bargaining table” is nothing short of outrageous and a gutless cop out. It confirms that the firefighters’ wage increase is a foregone conclusion.
The firefighters use the media all the time to play their “protecting the citizens” card during wage negotiations. Ruttan, like other weak-kneed politicians before him, is being conned, as proven by his comment “that because of Nanaimo’s linear shape, ensuring proper response times is a challenge”.
It seems Ruttan believes that “proper response times” as suggested in the National Fire Protection Association Standard is the gospel.
Ruttan and other councillors better get their priorities straight.
You’ll never be able to protect all the citizens even if you had a fire station on every block.
But you can protect all the citizens from ever-increasing taxes.
Brent Kaufmann
Nanaimo
