3 Ontario water bombers grounded due to pilot shortage, union calls for better wages

The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) is calling on the province to increase wages for water bomber pilots, as a shortage of pilots has led to the grounding of some aircraft.

OPSEU said in a news release that pilots it represents have "resoundingly rejected an offer that would have made Ontario second to last in terms of wages for these dangerous and critical jobs."

Speaking to CBC News on Wednesday, OPSEU president JP Hornick said Ontario water bomber pilots are leaving for other provinces because they can earn better wages.

"We have a government that is touting the fact that they're purchasing six new water bomber planes, but they can't even actually address the staffing needs that they have on the existing planes," Hornick said.

"This isn't somebody taking off of a regular tarmac, right? They're flying planes into the worst possible conditions, active wildfires, dipping down into lakes, filling it with water.

"The level of skill that is required to undertake these missions to save northern Ontario, it is not something I think most people understand. And they're treated as if they're just some fly-by-night pilot," Hornick added.

Province currently short 5 pilots: Hornick

A job posting on the Ontario government website for a CL-415 captain, classified as a Pilot 5, states the salary ranges from about $1,520 to $1,850 per week.

Another listing on the site, for a CL-415 co-pilot, classified as a Pilot 3, states the salary ranges from about $1,290 to $1,567 per week.

Hornick said the province is currently short five pilots, and three water bombers have been grounded as a result.

Emily McLaughlin, spokesperson for the Ministry of Natural Resources, said the offer included an "immediate increase" to water bomber pilot wages as a first step toward a long-term solution.

"In addition to an immediate increase, the government also expressly offered to allow OPSEU the ability to seek a binding decision from an arbitrator for additional increases as part of pre-established wage enhancement process," McLaughlin wrote in an email to CBC News. "Unfortunately, OPSEU rejected this proposed approach."

Ontario wildland firefighters, meanwhile, have been calling for the province to reclassify them as firefighters.

"In terms of Ontario, they are not considered to be firefighters," Thunder Bay-Superior North NDP MPP Lise Vaugeois said. "They are ... resource technicians."

"If you're a structural firefighter, you're a firefighter. If you're a volunteer firefighter in town, you're a firefighter. But if you are a forest firefighter, you are not a firefighter in terms of your classification."

The reclassification would allow for better benefits and wages, Vaugeois said.

McLaughlin said the work to reclassify wildland firefighters has been completed.

"The government has been waiting for OPSEU to sign the agreement since early April " she stated. "We are prepared to implement the reclassification changes immediately."

Hornick said the issue also spreads to the equipment wildland firefighters are issued.

"We brought in folks that were wearing equipment, pants and shirts, that have been passed on for, I think, some of the oldest were in the 12-year range, from one person to another, that they were holding together literally with duct tape in the field," Hornick said. "We're talking about equipment that was so toxic that they would not hug their own children while wearing it."

"They were eroding their washing machine lines trying to launder it," they said. "Then we have a government that, in this latest budget, cut $42 million from the wildland firefighter budget, and when questioned on it said, 'well we'll make it up with volunteers.'"

McLaughlin said, however, the province allocates $135 million at the start of each fire season to get contracts in place, and fund the early response. If costs increase above that base allocation, she said, the province provides further funding.

"Since 2018, our government has increased investments in fire protection by 92 per cent," she stated. "Any claim we have cut funding this year for wildland fire response is false."

"Our government continues to make record investments in fire protection, including through $64 million of new funding for equipment and training for personnel, in partnership with the federal government, and adding nearly 100 new permanent positions for additional fire personnel."

Hornick said with the pilots having rejected the provincial offer, "the ball is in the government's court."

"You've got a province that is literally burning up north and you have a bunch of folks who have the skills to be able to fix it, and a retention and recruitment problem that we've been flagging for years."