St. John's Releases Details on Plan for Fire Department in 2021 Budget

The City of St. John's has released some details on its plan for the St. John's Regional Fire Department in the 2021 budget.

The City says they have no intention to reduce the number of firefighters on shift. There are currently 44 firefighters a day and that will not change. The issue they plan to address has to do with overtime costs - averaging $1.2M and rising.

During summers and Christmas, they have annual leave/holiday blocks and always bring on temporary firefighters to make up those on leave which they say will continue to happen in 2021.

Their plan is to only call in replacement staff (or backfill) when staff numbers drop below 37 - not the current 39.