It's a first step in moving the Lakeshore Fire Department to a composite fire service with a mix of full-time and volunteer firefighters.
Lakeshore Council approved two full-time positions at its April 28 meeting as the start of a phased staffing plan.
The move towards a composite fire service, which blends full-time and paid on-call volunteer firefighters, will see the conversion of 10 volunteer positions, which are currently unfilled, into two full-time firefighter positions. The full-time positions will be filled by current volunteer firefighters.
Lakeshore Fire Chief Jason Suchiu says, "the traditional volunteer-based model in Lakeshore, like in many communities across Ontario, has been challenged by growing demand and increased recruitment and training costs, as well as the costly impact of turnover and retirement of long-serving firefighters."
Suchiu notes that on-call volunteer firefighters also have full-time jobs, in many cases, outside of the community.
"We've done some analysis over the last couple of years with where our call volumes are and the time of day that they occur. It's demonstrated that we have a higher amount of calls that occur during the 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. time frame. Almost half of our call volumes occur during that time frame, so there's a need for emergency responders during that time," he says.
Suchiu says it will still primarily be a volunteer fire service, but they want to support the coverage they have at the municipality's fire stations.
"The idea of having these full-time firefighters and a composite model will actually be to add some additional staffing that would support those stations during the day when some of the members might be out of the area," he says.
The Lakeshore Fire Department operates five fire stations in communities throughout the municipality with 93 volunteer firefighters on staff along with the chief, deputy chiefs, and training officer, which are full-time positions.
Suchiu says the addition of full-time firefighters will help with succession planning as volunteers who are nearing retirement transition out and new members are brought in.
"Our three most leading types of emergencies that we respond to are fire events, rescue events, and alarm activations. With that, we have to have the appropriate staffing to be able to manage those situations when calls for service continue to remain at the levels they have over the past couple of years," he says.
The staffing conversion is expected to save over $4,000 in 2027, with the cost of wages offset by the reduction in training, recruitment, and equipment.
The full-time positions, which are expected to be filled in late 2026, are part of the ongoing implementation of the Lakeshore Fire Master Plan, adopted in 2024.