Julia Lucich

In recent weeks there have been extensive articles in the local news media regarding the Salt Spring Island Fire Protection District (SSIFPD).  To the degree that any of this has focused on budget and expenditure, it would seem logical that current fiscal information can be found on the SSIFPD website.  As of this writing, and as I reviewed with the Trustees at the September 16 business meeting, budget/expenditure information available to ratepayers is far from current.  The most recent budget posted to the website isn't 2019 or even 2018.  It's for 2017. One critical piece of any government organization's financial picture is a report required by the Financial Information Act.  This report includes compensation for any employee earning $75,000 or more, and vendors receiving $25,000 or more in a fiscal year.  The 2018 report should have been available at the 2019 AGM, but its introduction was delayed until the following month. [Note that the figures for employee remuneration…

No doubt there are quite a few people in our community who disagree with disclosing compensation for members of the fire department. However discomforting the information may be, we can't deal with a problem that we don't know exists or aren't allowed to understand. The Board of Trustees has resisted sharing information with the public, creating obstacles at every step of the way. As mentioned by others, it should never have required a Freedom of Information request to obtain this data. Hiring full-time fire fighters more than a decade ago was an attempt to fix something which wasn't broken to begin with… the community had been well served by a body of committed, well trained volunteers. That initial "fix" and the subsequent Union contract have restricted the involvement of the volunteers and, regardless of their training and competence, renders them "second class citizens". The result has limited the community's choices while upping the ante on the cost. It has fostered an …

In response to the Driftwood article dated December 24, 2014, regarding our fire department quotes Union president Jamie Holmes as saying "The system must be somewhat broken…".  Although our reasons differ, I couldn't agree with him more. The fire department's 2015 budget is $2,529,000 (plus a few hundred thousand for debt servicing on outstanding loans). This is almost four times what it was less than ten years ago, yet the call volume is down. Across the pond, in the municipality of N. Cowichan, the 2014 budget for its fire department came in at half of ours: $1,254,000. Their population is about three times that of Salt Spring; the land mass is the same; the hazards are significantly greater (the Trans Canada Hwy., industry, etc.). There are four fire halls, each with its own Chief, and approximately 130 fire fighters….all of whom (including the fire chiefs) operate on a Paid-on-Call (POC) basis. "Captain" Holmes (he is now Asst. Chief, effective Jan. 1, 2015) asser…