Sudbury volunteer firefighters union say no warning given on fire hall merger

As part of this year's budget deliberations, city council in Greater Sudbury voted to merge several fire stations, but the news is not sitting well with the union representing volunteer firefighters.

On Monday, during its first meeting to deliberate the 2025 municipal budget, council voted to merge three fire stations.

Copper Cliff will merge with Lively, Val Caron will join Val Therese and Falconbridge will combine with Garson.

The move is expected to save the city $73,833 annually.

'Not a service cut'

Coun. René Lapierre is adamant it is not a service cut.

"It’s a change in where they’re responding from," he explained to his fellow councillors.

"The same amount of people will be responding to calls, the trucks as well. They’ll be able to respond to the calls. They’re just changing the location as to where they’re responding from."

Matt Walchuk, a provincial representative with the Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC), disagrees.

"There is definitely a reduction of service and it’s going to come at a higher price for the members of the community," Walchuk said.

"Look at the insurance rates that we suspect may very well likely increase when you’re that much further from a fire station. What are the impacts, the implications there? These are things the community should have been made aware of."

Twenty volunteer firefighters will be impacted; seven volunteers at Copper Cliff, two in Falconbridge and 11 at the Val Caron site.

They’ll join their counterparts at the merged fire halls.

Coun. Eric Benoit said he suspects some of them will stop volunteering as a result.

"Some may move over, but I’ve heard from a lot that they won’t because now they have to travel an extended distance to get to the station," Benoit said.

"A lot of these stations don’t have the capacity for these volunteers to move there."

Walchuk said the city made the decision without warning or public engagement.

"It’s a really difficult situation that should have been brought to our attention for all of these reasons as the members and the union should have been able to speak to this decision prior to it being made and we simply weren’t," Walchuk said.

The three fire halls slated for closure are expected to be shuttered by Christmas.