Mayoral candidate Klein accuses rival Murray of bowing to union in exchange for endorsement
Kevin Klein questions cost of Glen Murray's promise of separate stations for Winnipeg firefighters, paramedics
The long-simmering feud between Winnipeg firefighters and paramedics has bubbled up into the mayoral race, with one candidate accusing another of acceding to union demands in exchange for an endorsement.
Candidate Kevin Klein, the outgoing councillor for Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood, accused his rival Glen Murray of promising to break up the Winnipeg Fire-Paramedic Service in exchange for an endorsement from the United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg.
Klein said he was offered the union's endorsement if he agreed to break up Winnipeg's decades-old integrated fire-paramedic model, where both operate out of the same stations.
Klein said he refused because it would be too expensive to build paramedics their own stations.
"It would cost millions and millions of dollars," he said Wednesday morning at his campaign headquarters, flanked by the president of the union representing Winnipeg paramedics.
"If you immediately take ambulances out of fire stations, that's not a solution. That's pandering to politics. That solution simply costs us money and it's simply being made to get votes, or get the endorsement of a group."
The United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg endorsed Murray on July 11. At the time, Murray said the union did not ask for anything in return for its support.
"There was no quid pro quo," said Murray, who was Winnipeg's mayor in 2000, when the city amalgamated its firefighters and paramedics into one department.
Eleven days after the endorsement, Murray promised a governance review if he's elected.
"Given the desire of paramedics and firefighters to operate out of separate stations," the review would "recommend an approach to meet these demands in a timely fashion and in the broader public interest," Murray said in a statement issued July 22.
Support for 'collaborator': union
Murray rejected Klein's suggestion he engaged in horse-trading with the firefighters' union, and said his opinion about separate stations has evolved since 2000.
The creation of an integrated fire-paramedic service was something his predecessor, former mayor Susan Thompson, got started, he said.
"I came in the middle of that and supported it at the time," said Murray, who was elected in 1998, two years before the services were amalgamated.
Tom Bilous, president of the United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg, also said his union doesn't engage in horse-trading when it endorses candidates.
"The reason we are supporting [Murray] is because he's a collaborator, and we feel he has the most realistic approach to solving a lot of the issues," he said in a telephone interview.
Bilous also said Klein expressed a completely different position about splitting up firefighters and paramedics when the two sides met.
"In my recollection … Coun. Klein was all too willing to separate firefighters and paramedics," Bilous said. "This is an issue we discussed with all potential mayoral candidates."
Bilous noted said the city's paramedic union, the Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union Local 911, also supports separate stations.
Ouellette also promised to split service
Another mayoral candidate, Robert-Falcon Ouellette, promised Tuesday to look at splitting up the fire-paramedic service.
Ouellette, a former Liberal MP, said he would look at establishing a dedicated paramedic service to eliminate conflicts with firefighters.
"We have attempted to do this for a number of years — bringing its two very different cultures together — and it hasn't quite worked," Ouellette said Tuesday.
"I think it would be very important now to consider actually separating them and making sure that the paramedic services have the full support of the city and the province."
Scott Gillingham, the St. James councillor who is running for mayor, said separate, stand-alone stations for firefighters and paramedics would be very expensive.
"We'd have to build all-new ambulance stations and that would be an exorbitant cost, and I'm not committed to that," Gillingham said.
Klein made his comments about Murray after promising to assign more paramedics to the Emergency Paramedics in the Community (EPIC) program, which sends paramedics to the homes of low-acuity patients in order to lessen the load on emergency departments.
Ouellette made the same promise on Tuesday.
Klein, Gillingham, Murray and Ouellette are among 15 candidates for mayor. Idris Adelakun, Rana Bokhari, Chris Clacio, Vincent Gabriele, Shaun Loney, Jenny Motkaluk, Jessica Peebles, Rick Shone, Govind Thawani, Desmond Thomas and Don Woodstock have also registered mayoral campaigns.
Candidates must also submit nomination papers by Sept. 20 in order to appear on the election day ballot on Oct. 26.
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