Ontario offers $3 per hour pay increase, new title for forest firefighters
For years, forest firefighters in Ontario have been calling on the provincial government to reclassify their jobs to recognize them as an emergency service in a bid to stem recruitment and retention issues.
It’s a change the Ford government promised it would take on after sustained pressure from front-line staff and union officials.
The province now says work to reclassify forest firefighters — officially called resource technicians — has been “completed,” and is blaming the Ontario Public Service Employees Union for a delay in announcing the move.
Whether the terms the government has put forward address the substantive changes called for by forest firefighters is contested.
Draft information seen by Global News shows the reclassification involves renaming positions within the existing union structure — and moving people one category further up the grid, for a raise of roughly $3 per hour.
For example, those currently categorized as Resource Technicians will be moved up to Resource Technician 2. Their job title will then be changed from Resource Technician to “Wildland Firefighter 2.” If signed by the union, the change would be backdated.
According to the information seen by Global News, the changes will lead to an hourly pay increase of roughly $3 per hour, which will be backdated. More senior crew members, whose pay is calculated on a weekly basis, will see an increase closer to $5 per hour.
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It will not majorly change working conditions, rights or benefits.
The government said it was “ready to implement changes immediately,” but the union isn’t happy with the terms.
OPSEU President JP Hornick said they were concerned the new deal would not guarantee the number of years someone has worked will be copied over from the previous deal.
“What’s actually really bad about this current offer is that it will not recognize the years of service in the implementation of a new wage grid,” they said.
The risk of excluding years of service means long-term employees who have built up better terms and pay within a certain union bracket over time could find themselves back at the same point as much newer colleagues who have less experience.
“Without that guarantee, it’s not worth the paper it’s written on,” Hornick said.
Ontario Liberal MPP Mary-Margaret McMahon chided the government for not meeting the union’s request.
“Wildland fire rangers risk their lives to successfully fight fires that are larger, and longer, with fewer resources, and lower wages. They are absolutely essential to our province’s survival, especially as the frequency, and unpredictability of wildland fires grow due to the climate crisis’ extreme weather conditions,” she said in a written statement.
“Their compensation must reflect their immeasurable worth to our society, and their singular experience. To propose anything less is a dismissal of the invaluable work of wildland fire rangers, and a demonstration of willingness to risk the safety of our province.”
Reclassification is something forest firefighters have pushed on the government amidst crew shortages and front-line inexperience. They have argued that being reclassified as firefighters should give them better job security, pay and benefits.
Internally, the government acknowledged Ontario has an issue with the recruitment and retention of forest firefighters through a series of reports and communications.
In July 2022, for example, the director of Ontario’s Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services issued a memo saying he had “noticed both a decline in the number of people applying for positions” as well as an increase in the number of people leaving.
Hornick said $3 an hour would do little to address the recruitment and retention issues. OPSEU says the new deal would take Ontario from the lowest to the second-lowest paid firefighters in the country.
Last year, the province also offered a one-time $5,000 bonus to attract forest firefighters.
Hornick said the reclassification demand, which the union feels hasn’t been met, is a minimal request.
“They’re not asking for the moon — we’re not looking for these people to be jumping into the stratosphere on wages,” they said. “But we do need these other things if we’re going to actually make it a viable option for people to stay as wildland firefighters in Ontario.”
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
A new poll by Leger has found that Quebec residents are the happiest in Canada.
The web survey of nearly 40,000 Canadians found that Quebecers rated their happiness at an average of 72.4 out of 100, which is well above the national average.
New Brunswick followed Quebec with an average of 70.2, while Manitoba and Prince Edward Island finished at the bottom of the list.
Mississauga, Ont. had the highest happiness rating of the 10 largest cities, while Toronto was lowest.
Montreal finished second in the category.
The survey found that 49 per cent of respondents said their happiness level was unchanged over the past year, while 23 per said they were happier and 28 per cent said they were less happy.
“These results reveal a population that is both resilient and tested, affected by everyday uncertainty and challenges,” Leger’s executive summary read. “Happiness, while holding its ground overall, shows signs of fragility.”
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The survey found that people in the 18-to-24 and 24-to-34-year-old categories were more likely to report improved feelings of well-being, even if their overall happiness score remained below the national average.
In contrast, people in the 35-to-44 and 45-to-54 age brackets were more likely to report their happiness had deteriorated.
“There is a sense of well-being emerging among younger age groups,” the summary read. “However, this also highlights the importance of supporting adults in mid-life, who are more vulnerable to the pressures of working life.”
Quebec, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador were the three provinces with happiness levels above the national average of 68.7. They were followed, in descending order, by Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Manitoba and P.E.I. The territories were not included in the survey.
In the survey of the 10 largest cities, Mississauga and Montreal finished ahead of Hamilton, Calgary, Brampton, Ottawa, Edmonton, Vancouver, Winnipeg and Toronto, in that order.
Women reported slightly higher happiness levels than men, at 69.4 versus 68.0.
Leger says the overall results confirm “a level of happiness that is relatively high but stagnant or even slightly down compared to the pre-pandemic period.”
To get the results, Leger surveyed 39,841 Canadians aged 18 and up between March 31 and April 13.
Online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
Ontario Provincial Police are set to host a town hall in Quadeville, Ont., this evening to answer questions from residents about an attack on an eight-year-old child that was initially linked to an animal.
Police have arrested a 17-year-old boy in the case and he faces charges of attempted murder and sexual assault with a weapon.
Members of the small community 170 kilometres west of Ottawa say they were in shock after hearing about the arrest and hope to get clarity at today’s event in the town’s community centre.
Local resident Christine Hudder says she wants to know how police came up with the animal attack theory and why families were told for days to keep their children indoors.
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The victim was found with life-threatening injuries on June 24 after she was reported missing, and remains in hospital.
Police say they are planning to give as much information as possible to locals given that an investigation is still underway.
A Burlington, Ont., mother was unsettled to discover that an old photo of her children had been used in a fraudulent GoFundMe that attempted to elicit donations in connection the recent Texas floods.
Julie Cole told Global News that a friend had contacted her on social media to say that an old photo of her six children was being used in an attempt to collect ill-gotten gains.
“She reached out to me and she was like, ‘Hey, here’s a link to a GoFundMe. Sorry this has happened to you, but obviously a picture of your kids has been used without your consent and it’s being used for a GoFundMe to raise money, to help a family dealing with the Texas floods,’” she said.
Cole explained that the fake GoFundMe, which has since been removed by the company, was looking for donations to support a widowed mother of six kids in connection.
At least 120 people have died while more than 100 others remain unaccounted for as a result of the flooding, including 27 children and councilors from Camp Mystic.
“They were trying to raise $40,000 because of the three daughters had been victims of the Texas floods,” Cole said. “And the way it was presented felt very much like they were part of maybe that girl’s camp.”
Julie Cole told Global News that a friend had contacted her on social media to make that an old photo of her six children was being used in an attempt to collect ill-gotten gains.
Provided
Cole said once the listing was sent to her, she immediately contacted GoFundMe to get the fundraiser taken down.
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By Wednesday morning, the company had done so and in a statement to Global News, GoFundMe said that the fundraiser did not receive any donations and the account has been banned from creating any further fundraisers on the platform.
“GoFundMe has the most robust donor protection processes of any platform of our kind. We have round the clock trust and safety support, humans and technology making sure funds will get to where they are intended,” the statement offered.
After contacting the company, Cole said she shared the incident on her social media pages to raise awareness.
“So I did put it on my Facebook and I put it in my LinkedIn as like a heads-up learning experience kind of thing and there was a lot of outrage,” she said.
Cole also noted that while she is disappointed by the incident, she is well aware that her troubles are miniscule in comparison to those affected by the flooding.
“I do feel a little bit in myself that what I’m feeling is in no way comparable to what the actual families are feeling who have gone through the tragedies of the flooding,” she said.
The photo came from an old blog post she had written 16 years ago. Cole can date the picture as the baby in the photo is now getting ready to go for his driver’s test.
“I’m one of those, like, OG mommy bloggers from 20 years ago. So my kids have been on the internet. They have been sort of in the public eye,” she explained.
“And I know the risk is out there. And I think parents need to remember that, that their kids’ photos can be just screenshotted and used without consent. So there’s one lesson.
“I felt a little, well, very unsettled about it, particularly because of what it was being used for.”
In addition to being a parenting blogger, she also helped found Mabel’s Labels, which offers washable labels for kids clothing and other school items, in an effort to keep them out of the lost and found.
Julie Cole and her six kids in 2025.
Provided
Being a spokesperson for the company while raising six kids keeps her in the parenting sphere and she offered some other advice to parents about the images and social media.
“I think parents just have to be mindful and aware that once it’s out there, you know you’d like to think you’ll get consent or you’ll give consent if somebody asks or they want to use it, but people will just take it and they can just take,” she said.
“You have to be especially careful now with AI, because these photos can be altered.”
She also warned parents to check with their kids as they get older to see if they are OK with pics being posted and that people should be mindful of where they are sharing their donations.
“Another lesson out of this is people need to really be cautious and know where they’re putting their fundraising dollars,” Cole said.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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