DELTA -- A new contract puts Delta's firefighters at the top of the pay scale in the province.
The Corporation of Delta and Delta Firefighters IAFF Local 1763 have reached an eight-year agreement that includes a 2.5 per cent wage increase each year.
The new contract is retroactive to 2012, when the last agreement expired, and will take the department through 2019.
With the increase, the average wage for a Delta firefighter is just more than $87,000 a year.
Delta chief administrative officer George Harvie said the agreement considered recent settlements in B.C., as well as other provinces, in addition to the skill set of Delta firefighters.
The department has the highest pre-hire requirements for applicants in the Lower Mainland, and Delta's firefighters are trained in technical rescue, hazardous material response as well as medical and aircraft emergencies. "We're a very diverse fire department in the region," said fire Chief Dan Copeland. "We require all our firefighters to be trained in all those disciplines."
The Delta Fire Department covers one of the largest geographic areas in Greater Vancouver, which includes the ports at Roberts Bank, the ferry terminal in Tsawwassen, Boundary Bay Airport, Burns Bog and the Vancouver Landfill.
Delta firefighters are also in the process of being trained to an emergency medical responder level and becoming licensed to provide pre-hospital care. The department is currently in talks with B.C. Emergency Health Services to run a three-year program that would see firefighters provide enhanced medical assistance when responding to emergency calls.
Copeland said he's hoping to have the program start later this year.
In addition to the level of training required by Delta firefighters, Harvie said the municipality also looked at recent agreements reached in other provinces. In Alberta, arbitrations and negotiations resulted in agreements with increases between 2.5 per cent and six per cent per year. Calgary recently reached an arbitrated three-year agreement with its firefighters with wage increases of three per cent, 2.5 per cent and 5.165 per cent.