SUDBURY -- After a marathon three-hour discussion Tuesday night, city council in Greater Sudbury has decided to hire more full-time firefighters for the Val Therese station.

The decision comes after an arbitrator ruled last year the station should have four full-time firefighters rather than two. It's going to mean the city will need to spend an additional $1,074,000 on fire services.

"It's not quite as expensive as first anticipated, but it will still mean a possible tax increase of about three per cent," said Ward 5 Coun. Robert Kirwan, who represents part of the former Valley East. "At the end of the day, it was about which option can we take that's not going increase the risk to the residents."

Kirwan said it was about maintaining the risk-level for the city as a whole, and he didn't want to risk it, just to save a few dollars.

"I will never compromise safety over money when it comes to my constituents," he said.

Not everyone agreed with the move, including Ward 3 Coun. Gerry Montpellier. Montpellier presented his case to council and outlined his concerns.

After the vote, he resigned as chair of the emergency services committee.

Montpellier told CTV News he is disappointed in the decision, adding he can't support what he sees as an unnecessary tax increase.

Currently, Greater Sudbury sends career firefighters to calls where volunteers might respond in the outlying areas, to ensure what it sees as adequate staffing levels.

The Val Therese station is the only composite station in the city made up of both career and volunteer firefighters.

In a message to CTV, the Sudbury Professional Firefighters Association welcomed the decision.

"We are pleased that city council has supported maintaining current service levels and at the same time respecting the arbitrated staffing award," it read.

Campaigned against the move

The Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC), however, sees it differently. It represents the volunteer firefighters and is currently in bargaining with the city.

It had campaigned against the move and even urged taxpayers to contact their local councillor

"There's been two very lengthy decisions made at city council over the past few weeks and we find that decision disappointing for a number of different reasons," said CLAC provincial representative Matthew Walchuk.

Walchuk said council's decision has effectively made Val Therese a career station, and that's been damaging to morale of volunteers.

"Our volunteer firefighters will have a significantly reduced role to play in fire services, and the truth of that can be seen in council meetings previously where they were talking about the model of fire services in the city core and how volunteer firefighters are not permitted to respond," he said.

He was encouraged to see a motion from councillors McIntosh and McCausland that directed staff to look into ways where they can boost volunteer firefighter recruitment.

"I can tell you I've talked to many of them over the last little bit, and certainly this morning, and a lot of them are feeling quite frustrated, upset and their confidence is really shaken in the role they get to play and how they're spoken about," Walchuck said.

For his part, Kirwan said the decision is going to lead to additional discussions around things like area rating. Currently, some residents of Greater Sudbury pay more property tax and some pay less depending on their level of service for things like fire services.

They're going to be looking at that in April or May when they look at tax policy based on the results of the final budget.

"We have the same number of firefighters as a full-time crew in Sudbury, but we also have the volunteers as support so we actually have, I don't want to say a higher, but we have an enhanced level of fire protection in the valley. We have the best," said Kirwan.