Dynamic staffing is a flexible way of managing our staffing by adjusting where and when employees work based on real-time needs. This approach ensures emergency personnel are available while still meeting department service levels with no job cuts.

In emergency services, dynamic staffing helps manage overtime shifts and costs, keeping operations efficient and responsive. It allows us to adapt quickly to changing demands, ensuring both firefighter well-being and financial sustainability while maintaining strong fire response capabilities.

Dynamic staffing addresses two major concerns:

• Financial Sustainability: It ensures that emergency services remain financially viable without cutting essential services.
• Employee Well-being: It reduces excessive overtime, which previously led to fatigue and burnout among our emergency responders.

No. Dynamic staffing does not result in job cuts. All emergency services personnel retain their positions, and the initiative focuses on optimizing shift assignments related to fire response rather than reducing staff numbers.

There are currently 194 firefighter/paramedic positions within The City of Red Deer’s emergency services department. The City’s emergency services team is integrated, meaning they provide fire and medical response.

It may, in some circumstances affect ambulance services though it is highly unusual for ambulances to be affected by staff unavailability. Since 2022, The City is aware of 2 occurrences where ambulances were unstaffed for a full shift.

Dynamic staffing helps control overtime expenses within the Emergency Services department, which in comparable cities have been a significant financial burden. In 2024, the City of Red Deer (emergency services) had higher overtime costs ($3.2 million) than any other city, per capita, By reducing unnecessary overtime, The City of Red Deer is ensuring the long-term financial health of emergency services and the organization, minimizing growing costs and impacts to taxpayers.

Yes. With the implementation of dynamic staffing, Emergency Services has seen a decrease in the number of staff who are unavailable for their regular shifts, enabling emergency services to operate additional fire trucks/equipment. Prior to this change, this was rarely possible whereas, in January 2025, it occurred 34 times, which means we exceeded our typical staffing level of 31 staff per shift.

Additionally, data from January 2025 shows a significant reduction in overtime shifts:

• Before Dynamic Staffing (Jan 1-5, 2025): 11 overtime shifts
• After Dynamic Staffing (Jan 6-31, 2025): 3 overtime shifts
• Projected without Dynamic Staffing (Jan 6-31, 2025): 10 overtime shifts
• This demonstrates a clear reduction in overtime.

The current base salary for a first-class firefighter in Red Deer is $109,853 per year in addition to benefits and pension, premiums and shift differentials. A Captain earns approximately $134,020. The position of Platoon Chief (PC) earns approximately $148,301.

Overtime is paid at double the regular rate. For a first-class firefighter, the regular pay rate in 2024 is $50.11/hour. With overtime, this becomes $100.22/hour.

• OT Shift Example: For a 14-hour night shift, a first-class firefighter will earn $1,403.08. This is calculated as $100.22/hour x 14 hours.
• Regular Pay Example: For a 14-hour night shift, a first-class firefighter will earn $701.54. This is calculated at $50.11/hour x 14 hours.

In 2024, The City of Red Deer paid out $3.2 million in overtime to emergency services employees.

As part of the 2025 budget deliberations, City Council initiated decreases in the budgets for many City departments.  City Council directed a decrease of approximately $600,000, to be realized through implementation of dynamic staffing in emergency services.

There have been no job cuts in emergency services. In fact, since 2022, 32 firefighter/paramedic positions have been added within emergency services.

The national standards the City of Red Deer is legally required to meet are the National Fire Code of Canada (NFC) and the National Building Code of Canada (NBC). These relate specifically to building codes and fire prevention. These codes focus on the design, construction, and maintenance of buildings to ensure fire safety and occupant protection. They do not specify requirements for fire department response times or staffing levels.

There are documents from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) in the United States which contains response times and staffing levels.  These are not legally binding in Canada. We are not aware of any Alberta city that meets the NFPA recommendations.

The City of Red Deer looks to High-Intensity Residential Fires (HIRF) guidelines, which are guidelines designed to minimize the risk and impact of severe fires in residential areas. These standards are about development and geography. However, they also inform The City’s service level with a shared goal to ensure that fire departments can respond to residential fires within 10 minutes, 90% of the time (from the time the call comes in, until the time the truck arrives on scene).

The City of Red Deer’s service levels are as follows:

• Fire and emergency response within 10 minutes, 90% of the time (from the time the call comes in, until the first truck arrives on scene).
• Target staffing level of 31 personnel per shift across five stations.
• Minimum staffing level of 4 fire personnel on each fire truck.
  • If staff are unavailable, Station #2 may operate as a support company with 2 fire personnel on a fire truck, supporting on an as needed basis with two personnel; or the fire truck at Station #2 may be removed from service.
• Minimum staffing level of 2 paramedics on each ambulance.