Sarnia's mayor says the city continues to feel the "ramifications" of reducing its firefighter complement a few years ago.
It's recommended city council include the wages to hire two probationary firefighters in the 2019 budget, or continue to pay additional overtime to cope with vacancies.
Mayor Mike Bradley said the same action was taken in 2017 and the pattern needs to be addressed.
"There's always factors, with injuries and leaves that happen that will cause overtime issues, but when the four firefighters were cut back in 2015, that's led to these problems and they shouldn't have been cut," said Bradley.
In October 2015 during an in-camera meeting, Sarnia council eliminated the front line firefighting positions through attrition, expecting to save $525,000 a year.
Bradley said the decision continues to haunt the budget.
"We had adopted a fire master plan working with the fire association, which is exactly the way it's supposed to work, and we agreed on a number that would bring about a level of staffing and help reduce overtime," he said. "That was gutted in the last two or three years and that, no matter how it's guised, is one of the key factors in why the overtime is over $1.1 million."
In his report to council, Fire Chief John Kingyens said so far eight personnel had taken long-term absences or statutory leave in 2018.