The District of Lantzville has decided to compensate firefighters on weekends.
At a regular council meeting on Jan. 27, councillors unanimously voted in favour of allocating $7,800 in the budget in order to compensate Lantzville firefighters working as duty officers during the weekend.
Previously, duty chief officers were not compensated for weekend work in Lantzville. However, all firefighters are paid an hourly on-call rate, which varies depending on their rank, whenever they respond to an emergency or incident.
Council’s decision means the district will now compensate firefighters serving as the duty chief officer $150 per weekend, which equates to $7,800 over a 52-week period. The change will not result in a property tax increase because the increase was already accounted for in the recently approved 2020-2024 financial plan.
During the Jan. 27 meetings, Coun. Ian Savage told councillors that it’s about time firefighters in Lantzville get paid on weekends.
“I’m really pleased that weekend people are getting properly compensated, that is the big one in here,” he said.
Coun. Karen Proctor echoed Savage’s comments, adding that the work the volunteer firefighters do is important for everyone.
“I’m sure everyone in Lantzville agrees,” she said. “Everyone appreciates what they do and they should be paid accordingly.”
Duty officers are typically senior firefighters who have incident command experience and are responsible for the fire department when the fire chief is not on duty.
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