Thompson, Man., is experiencing a crisis in hiring enough people for the city's fire department.
The head of the Thompson Professional Firefighters Association says there should be 24 firefighters who can also work as paramedics to help the community. But right now, there are only 16, which leads to extra work and stress.
Travis Mirus, the president, told Global Winnipeg that they currently have 8 less staff than they need. This means they have to work extra hours to make sure there are enough people on duty 24/7 for both fire and EMS protection. It's leaving them short by a whole shift for the city.
Mirus said his members will keep working extra hours to make sure they can respond to emergencies, but he thinks it's not something they can keep doing for a long time.
He mentioned that each of the 16 firefighters has worked about 500 extra hours.
In 2002, they responded to about 2,500 fire and EMS emergencies with the same number of people. Now they have even fewer staff and respond to over 9,000 emergencies each year. This is causing the staff to become exhausted.
The mayor of Thompson, Colleen Smook, said it's hard to keep firefighters in northern Manitoba when they can find opportunities in other places.
Thompson often has trouble finding enough people to work in healthcare and other industries because it's so far away from major cities.
She also said that it only takes a short time working in Thompson to become qualified for better jobs in other places, so it's easy for the firefighters to leave.
The city of Thompson is already talking with the new NDP government in hopes of getting help for the community.
The mayor wrote a letter expressing her concerns to the new government, and they have already responded by meeting with her.
She also mentioned that the previous government did not see the urgency of the situation.
Discussions are also happening with Shared Health and the Brandon Fire College, according to the mayor.
