An outgoing Sarnia councillor wants the new council to have staff investigate a long term disability program for the fire department
Bev MacDougall, who wasn't re-elected in the October 22 election, thinks it could take the heat off the city's fire budget.
"I see that the overtime budget, as of November of this year, is a million dollars, that's a lot of money and I believe that a disability insurance plan would take some of the risk away from the city," said MacDougall.
Council decided Monday to include the wages to hire two probationary firefighters in the 2019 budget -- rather than continue to pay additional overtime -- to cope with vacancies.
MacDougall said she believes there's a better way to handle it in the future, adding that "endless overtime discussions" are unproductive.
"It was always said to me, 'we've looked at that councillor MacDougall and there was no benefit to it.' But, I think that the incoming council should take a look again, through our human resources department, through our fire chief, the deputy fire chief, and see if some sort of a weekly indemnity program could do more and do better for our taxpayers," she said.
In his report to council, fire chief John Kingyens said eight personnel had taken long-term absences or statutory leave in 2018 so far.