'Staff are demoralized': Labour leaders talk consequences of Calgary budget cuts

With only a few hours to process the bombshells that came out of Calgary city council Tuesday evening, labour leaders are warning of the consequences of cutting $60 million from this year's budget.

"The city is under a hiring freeze and we're cutting another $60 million on five months of budget, but we somehow have money for the Calgary Flames?"

That was the response of Alexander Shevalier, president of the Calgary and District Labour Council, in a news release Wednesday.

"It boggles the mind," he said.

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Emergency services, transit service and affordable housing were among the services slashed as city council unveiled details Tuesday.

Nearly every city department and service a total of 48 departments from arts to waste and recycling will feel the crunch.

Some of the biggest impacts include:

• 223 city positions (which include vacant jobs and retirements) will be cut.
• 115 city employees will lose their jobs.
• 80,000 fewer Calgary Transit service hours, which means reduced frequency of buses and CTrains.
• Lower disaster preparedness at the emergency management agency.
• 52 fewer affordable homes (13 per cent of the housing incentive program) will be funded.
• Zero community recreation programming at some locations.
• Four fewer medical response units and one less rescue unit on the fire department's front lines, which means reduced service for critical medical interventions and emergency responses citywide, and increased response times.

"Why are we subsidizing box seats at the same time we are cutting funding for amateur sports, for transit, for recreation centres, and for emergency medical response and laying off 115 people," Shevalier asked.

Delayed response times expected

The president of the Calgary Firefighters Association warned to get ready to wait longer.

"It will delay response times, for sure, with that truck," Mike Henson told CBC News.

That truckis the Station 9 rescue unit that is being pulled from the road.

Henson said that will take analysis to figure out how to best manage that loss.

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But more straight forward losses to the fire department could be immediate.

"The [four] medical response units could be cut as soon as Wednesday night or Thursday. The district engine is going to have to do those medical calls. The cost of doing those calls is just going to go up, probably double," Henson said.

Medical response units are SUVs with two firefighters that respond to life-threatening calls and usually arrive before paramedics because fire stations are often more strategically located.

A full fire truck with four firefighters will now respond to those calls, Henson said.

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He said 30 positions will not be filled, and additional savings will come over the long term through attrition, where a position is not replaced after staff retire or leave.

But there's more.

"We are really going to feel the crunch about two years from now, after training. That's when they will be missed because we will be short drivers," Henson said.

And the mood?

"Disappointed, worried about how this is going to affect everything,"he said.

'This all requires staff'

D'Arcy Lanovaz is the president at CUPE Local 38, representing about 4,200 of the city's 15,000 employees.

He says the cuts announced Tuesday are really more of a continuation of belt-tightening over the past few years.

"In 2017, the city put a freeze on all postings. We lost a significant number through attrition, then it moved into actual layoffs. We lost about 70 staff through layoffs," Lanovaz said.

"We are still grappling with the workloads left by that."

And the timing could not be worse, he said.

"City council has made decisions to pursue significant projects: the BMO Centre, the events centre, Arts Commons, the new arena. Load onto that 14 new communities they have approved," Lanovaz said.

"This all requires staff."