Ted Gard, former general manager of community services with Rocky View, no longer works for the municipality, a County representative confirmed Sept. 12.
Gard retired from his position on Aug. 30, according to Grant Kaiser, manager of communications with the County.
“Mr. Gard first indicated his intention to retire back in March, but wanted to stay through the end of contract negotiations/arbitration with the fire union,” Kaiser explained via email. “The contract is now in place.”
In his former role with community services, Gard was involved with changes made to RVC Fire Services.
Rocky View Weekly learned of Gard’s retirement after both the County and the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) entered into two days of hearings with the Alberta Labour Relations Board (ALRB) on Sept. 9 and 10.
The IAFF has filed charges against the County for bargaining in bad faith after the municipality agreed to firefighter wage increases in July 2012 and then laid off 12 full-time firefighters on June 13 of this year.
RVC and the IAFF began negotiating in 2010. The annual wage increase to $92,303, per year for a full-time fourth-year first-class firefighter. The increase from $89,614 in July 2012, was one of the agreements made by the County.
Due to the increased cost for salaries, the County decided to cut a dozen full-time firefighter positions and replace the positions with part-time firefighters.
Three years ago, Rocky View County Fire Department (RVCFD) operated with as many as seven firefighters per shift over a 24-hour period.
Over the course of the past three years, the number of firefighters has been reduced to four per shift, on a rotating schedule of one-day-on, two-days-off, one-day-on, four-days-off for full-time firefighters.
On Aug. 18, the Elbow Valley fire station was shut down for 12 hours as there were not enough firefighters to man the station.
On Aug. 19, Springbank station had only three firefighters on staff and the Irricana station has been closed numerous times in the past week due to a lack of volunteers.
Based on the decision made by the County, the IAFF filed a compliant with the ALRB.
The Board decided, in a preliminary hearing this past July, to remove Edmonton lawyer Dwayne Chomyn as Rocky View County counsel.
Chomyn, who works for Newman Thompson, was hired by the County to mediate the negotiations for salary increases. Chomyn was also involved in the decision to cut the full-time positions based on the increased cost to the County.
Some of the issues brought before the ALRB in September included: the layoffs of the full-time firefighters have a significant impact on the bargaining unit; did the union ask the County about its layoff plan and the possibility of layoffs during the course of bargaining; when did the County start considering the possibility of layoffs; and when was the decision to proceed with the layoffs made.
The decision of the ALRB was not known as of press time.
Kent Robinson – the general manager of corporate services – will fill Gard’s role until a replacement is hired, according to the County.
With files from Katherine McMackin, Matt Durnan and Kristen Spruit
