Wildfire fighters face significant risk to protect homes, lands, and forests in British Columbia. Despite their hard work and dedication, wildfire fighters in BC are underpaid and undersupported. Wildfire fighters must be classified as first responders, provided with comprehensive year-round benefits, and paid fairly for their dangerous work.

 

Wildfire fighters in BC are classified as "Scientific and Technical Officers" or "Forest Technicians," meaning they are paid at the same rate as other government positions in forestry rather than as professional firefighters. Crew members are classified as Forest Technicians and have a starting wage of $26.68/hr. Fire crew members make the same wage as seed orchard technicians, forest research crew members, forest stand treatment and plot measurement crew members, and cruising or forest survey junior assistants while being exposed to significantly more job-related hazards (https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/careers-myhr/all-employees/pay-benefits/salaries/salarylookuptool/bcgeu-jobs/forest-technician).

 

Auxiliary (seasonal) staff, both on crews and in the office - in supporting roles like logistics, finance, communications, dispatch, aviation, etc.- are at the financial mercy of the fire season, making as little as $30,000 in a slow season or $100,000 in a busy season. And while staff pay union dues on overtime, that overtime is not pensionable. Although busy fire seasons are positive financially, they come with physical fatigue and injuries, psychological strain, and home-life challenges from being away for so long.

 

The low salary, seasonal nature of many positions, and lack of year-round benefits mean that approximately 25% of the workforce leaves each year. Many wildfire fighters choose to move into structural firefighting, which offers much higher salaries, comprehensive benefits, permanent full-time work, and appropriate compensation for the job-related risks (https://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/local-news/as-fire-risk-rises-bc-wildfire-service-faces-retention-issues-5631739). The high turnover rate means that significant resources are committed to training new staff each year. When fire season starts early, like it has this year, inexperienced firefighters and office staff are expected to hit the ground running, which may quickly lead to burnout.

 

According to the Ministry of Forests, "[they are] aware of the turnover issue and [have] made steps to rectify it with a “historic funding commitment of over $350 million...This significant investment enables the transition to a year-round operational model, allowing for the hiring of more year-round staff...While acknowledging that a certain level of turnover is expected given the physical nature of wildfire firefighting, we are aware that the turnover rate of firefighting crews is an issue facing many jurisdictions, including B.C., and we are actively addressing this issue through historic investments across the entire BC Wildfire Service” (https://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/local-news/as-fire-risk-rises-bc-wildfire-service-faces-retention-issues-5631739). However, creating new positions does not solve the current issues of underpaid staff, high turnover, and subpar benefits and support systems.

 

Adding to the challenge of establishing fair compensation for all BC Wildfire staff, direct suppression and office-based staff are under separate BCGEU (BC General Employees' Union) components. Others are represented by the PEA (Professional Employees Association). This means that compensation, benefits, overtime, and other job-related aspects differ across positions within BC Wildfire, depending on union membership.

 

The recent BCGEU open letter to the Minister of Forests shifts all blame away from the BCGEU. However, in the last BCGEU bargaining period, the overarching platform of COLA (cost of living allowance) drowned out the needs of BCWS staff. This left wildfire firefighters and support staff behind once again. BCGEU collects union dues on overtime. Because the BCWS pay model relies heavily on overtime, BCWS employees in the BCGEU pay a large sum towards the union compared to any other group within the union. As noted, these overtime hours do not count toward benefits or pensions. BCWS staff represented by the BCGEU have been calling for the BCGEU to provide representation proportional to the amount of union dues paid or to make overtime hours pensionable for years with no progress.

 

PEA members who support fire operations during busy fire seasons do not receive overtime pay due to their collective agreement. Instead, they are given time-in-lieu at a 1-1 ratio. This model is prohibitive for PEA members who want to support fire response and are not compensated fairly for working long, gruelling days.

 

We need the Government of BC, the BCGEU, and the PEA to work together to:

• reclassify wildfire fighters as professional firefighters - and first responders
• increase wages across all BC Wildfire positions to match wages of other first responder organizations
• provide appropriate danger pay for direct suppression staff
• provide comprehensive benefits to all staff, including year-round benefits for auxiliary staff
• eliminate the one-year delay in benefit eligibility for all BC Wildfire staff
• provide comprehensive physical and mental health support for all BC Wildfire staff