As it turns out, you can call the fire department if your cat gets stuck in a tree.
During this week’s meeting of the finance committee, several municipal departments presented their 2026-27 budgets, including the fire service.
Rob Grimwood, only 12 days into his new job as the city’s director and chief of fire services, told committee members the nature of the service is unpredictable.
“We are a dynamic and unpredictable department in terms of what we do out in the community. The majority of our work is not in our workplace; it is wherever that next call may be,” he said. “That will find us in some really interesting, challenging and adverse conditions.”
In addition to fighting fire, Grimwood said firefighters perform all kinds of tasks, including open and frozen water rescues, collision response, “assisting paramedics with medical responses, and so much more.”
Grimwood said the logic is simple — “when the public needs help, they often call the fire department.”
And the department responds.
“We quite literally rescue cats from trees,” he said. “We investigate fire alarms, carbon monoxide alarms. We respond to motor vehicle accidents and a wide range of technical rescue calls.”
Grimwood said increasingly, the fire service is called on to assist with public services, including utilities, natural gas leaks, flooded basements and fallen hydro lines.
Grimwood said given the dangerous nature of firefighting, the service is prioritizing the well-being, wellness, mental health and safety of its members.
Putting staff health first was at the top of his list of strategic priorities, Grimwood told councillors. Despite the ways pop culture portrays firefighting, he said the real dangers lie in occupational cancer. The names of 56 firefighters were added this year to the fallen firefighter memorial at Queen’s Park during the annual commemoration ceremony. Grimwood said all were victims of occupational cancer. More than 1,000 Ontario firefighters have fallen to cancer as a result of their careers.
“We know we can’t help others unless we help ourselves,” he said. “When we look at health and safety today, it’s very different from when I started. Our major risks today are occupational cancer and taking care of the mental health of our responders. When we look at health and safety, it’s more than the traditional role. It’s health, safety and wellness.”
A recent arbitration determined the City of Greater Sudbury will be required to pay out accidental death and dismemberment benefits to the family of Mike Frost, an 11-year veteran of the Greater Sudbury Fire Service who died in 2022 by suicide. He had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder since 2019 and had been on medical leave shortly before his death.
The fire service presented a proposed budget of $38.8 million in 2026 and $40.3 million in 2027, an increase of about 14.8 per cent (about $5.18 million) over 2025. As part of that budget, Grimwood brought forward two business cases for the finance committee to deliberate next week.
The first, a carry-over from the last budget, would add four career firefighters to the city’s complement. Grimwood said currently, the service is chronically short-staffed and relying too heavily on overtime, since the collective agreement indicates there must be 20 firefighters per truck.
“We are four short of that,” he said. “In addition to that, we have nine firefighters who are out of the workplace on WSIB, long-term disability, maternity or parental leave. Because we have minimum staffing requirements in our collective agreement, every single day that’s triggering overtime calls.”
The additional firefighters would increase the total number of firefighters, “to provide the daily staffing we’re mandated to do today, without having to do it on overtime.”
However, Ward 4 Coun. Pauline Fortin noted that “the last time we hired firefighters was to bring down costs of overtime and it doesn’t appear to have done that.” She was skeptical, but acknowledged the city must take some action to rectify the situation.
As of Oct. 31, staff said the city had spent about $2.5 million on overtime in 2025. A more concrete answer will be provided next week, once figures have been updated.
Grimwood said if city council does not approve four new firefighters, “it would be status quo with what we’re doing this year and using overtime because we have contractual obligations. This is not an ask that will enhance service; this is an ask that will continue our current level of service in a more efficient manner.”
The additional firefighters would cost $187,597 next year, and $325,074 each year from 2027 to 2030. The impact to the tax levy would be 0.05 per cent in 2026 and 0.08 per cent the following year.
Grimwood also introduced a business case for two additional mechanical officers, who oversee the equipment used by frontline staff. Currently, the city employs one officer, but because of orders from the Ministry of Labour and legislation surrounding breathing apparatuses, “we need these roles critically to be able to perform that work,” which he said is quite physical.
Two additional mechanical officers would cost taxpayers an additional $233,925 in 2026, causing a 0.06 per cent increase to the tax levy. From 2027 to 2030, the new staff would cost taxpayers an additional $247,208 annually.
The finance committee will meet Dec. 2 at 9:30 a.m. at the Lionel E. Lalonde Centre in Azilda to deliberate the city's 2026-27 budget. The public is invited to attend meetings in person, or they can watch a livestream at greatersudbury.ca/agendas.