Firefighters union expresses no confidence in 2026 WFPS budget | CBC News

Chronically understaffed and overworked, Winnipeg firefighters have officially lost confidence in city council’s proposed direction for the emergency service.

The United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg formally issued a vote of non-confidence for the proposed 2026 Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service budget after an “overwhelming majority” of firefighters rebuffed the plan to address “long-documented staffing, safety and performance deficiencies,” according to a Friday news release.

Nearly one-third of the city’s 957 firefighters took part in the five-day internal vote, in which over 99 per cent of respondents voted no confidence in the proposed budget, Nick Kasper, president of UFFW said Saturday.

Additionally, fewer than 10 per cent of firefighters said they would recommend the Winnipeg Fire Department as a safe place to work.

“We want Winnipeggers to know that this vote of non-confidence has in no way any drawback action,” Kasper said. 

“We’re going to continue to be there for them as best we can as we always have, but we’re also going to continue loudly letting them know the realities of the impact that these constraints are having.”

Budget amendment denied

In its 2026 draft budget released last month, the city set out a plan to create a “resource pool” of firefighters who will be available to fill absences, with 10 positions being allocated annually over the next four years.

Mayor Scott Gillingham said last month that the new positions reflected an important step to help with concerns about staffing and overtime issues. 

“It’s an important step to add more resources, to make those resources available to the [fire] chief … so he can staff where the staff shortage is.” 

With the new positions, firefighters would serve where needed and fill absences in an effort to reduce overtime, support training and enhance capacity across the department. 

Kasper says the department is understaffed by 80 critical positions.

“That’s having a detrimental impact on the psychological and physical health of our members and our ability to deliver service to Winnipeggers,” he said.

WFD members attended a special standing policy committee meeting on community services Friday hoping for a budget amendment.

The total Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service budget is forecast to rise to $262 million, up $8 million from $254 million in 2025.

A motion was proposed at Friday’s meeting to accelerate the 40 new positions from 10 per year over four years to 20 per year in 2026 and 2027.

It’s estimated the cost of speeding up the program would be between $300,000 and $400,000 annually over the next two years.

Deputy Fire Chief Scott Wilkinson believes accelerating the program would have “a significant impact” on managing overtime costs.

“An accelerated onboarding of those budgeted positions would allow us to put more people in the pool, fill more absences without relying on existing staff who are at high stress levels already,” he said at Friday’s meeting.

Overtime costs remain high

Since 2018, the city has spent over $56 million on overtime pay for firefighters — from around $2 million in 2018, to around $10 million annually from 2022 to 2025. 

The city has also seen rates of fire instances — the number of residential structural fires with losses per 1,000 households — rise from 1.66 in 2020 to 1.87 in 2024, for an increase of 13 per cent.

Firefighters are being asked to do more with fewer available bodies, as an estimated 200 members are currently off duty, resulting in firefighters working up to 70 additional shifts per year to ensure trucks are kept on duty.

“That’s just not something that can continue,” Kasper said.

The city’s audit department has previously said the primary driver of firefighter overtime is tied to the porous staffing ratio.

As a result, response times have increased, which, when coupled with reducing staff resources and an increasing frequency of fires, “pose a challenge for the department and city to address,” Wilkinson said.

The proposed motion to speed up hiring was voted down, Kasper confirmed to CBC.

“The city has dug in and they’re going to continue spending more and Winnipeg is going to be receiving less,” Kasper said. “We don’t think that’s good enough.

“Winnipeggers deserve to have an appropriate level of emergency response when they call 911, and that’s not what they’re receiving with budget 2026.”

The budget also says the city will staff a wellness clinic for WFPS members with nine new full-time roles. It also includes 11.50 FTEs to be added for new community paramedic support, which will be funded by Shared Health.  

“While we appreciate the idea of 11 additional people in a wellness clinic upstairs, unless those individuals are psychologists, psychiatrists or surgeons, they’re not getting our people who are already sick back to work any sooner,” Kasper said.

“And unless they’re getting on trucks and taking overtime shifts for us, they’re not going to prevent our staff from being sick or injured.”