Southern Alberta fire departments face challenges maintaining volunteer rosters

LETHBRIDGE — Whether it's responding to a fire, vehicle crash or medical call, fire departments and their members are busier than ever.

"We do see an extra demand on our volunteers and on full-time staff," said Clayton Rutberg, director of protective services with the Town of Coaldale.

Maintaining a full roster of paid firefighters is unfeasible for most small towns, meaning the call goes out to residents to volunteer.

Retaining those volunteers has been challenging, however.

"It's a huge time commitment for the volunteers," Rutberg said.

"There's weekly training, plus different certification training that they do and oftentimes, because they are volunteers, this is happening in the evenings and weekends outside of their normal jobs."

Coaldale and District Fire Department has room for 45 volunteers but is currently sitting at 33, while the Town of Picture Butte only has 19 volunteers, down from its preferred 32.

"We've got people working multiple jobs to pay the bills," said Frank West, fire chief with the Town of Picture Butte.

"Kids in school and growing families, busy with extracurricular activities -- we are very aware that our volunteers' time is a priceless commodity."

According to the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs (CACF), volunteer firefighters make up more than 70 per cent of total firefighters in Canada.

The 2022 Great Canadian Fire census showed the number of firefighters fell from 156,000 to 126,000 in 2022.

"Without volunteers, people in the community stepping up and volunteering to serve their community, a lot of small communities wouldn't have a fire department because it's far beyond the capabilities of a small municipal budget to be able to hire career firefighters," West said.

In 2020, Coaldale adopted an incentive providing eligible volunteer firefighters with up to $1,000 per year in a property tax rebate on their residential tax bill.

The Town of Picture Butte has a similar incentive in place, according to West.

Both towns also offer a $1,000 property tax incentive for volunteers and businesses they work at.

Rutberg says the CACF is lobbying to increase those incentives.

"They currently have a petition going around to increase the tax incentive amount from $3,000 to $10,000," Rutberg said.

"That's another tool that can be used to help attract and retain volunteers."