Just days after the end of a nearly two-month CUPE strike, the Town of Cochrane is happy to have its employees back to work.
During a regular council meeting on Tuesday (Sept. 26), Mayor Peter Politis made a verbal report regarding labour relations that highlighted the recent CUPE strike that ended after 53 days last Friday (Sept. 22). A report on the cost of the strike is also being prepared and will be brought back to council.
“As we all know, the strike has ended. It was a difficult challenge for ourselves and it was a difficult challenge for the employees, I’m sure, but a necessary part as we discuss the type of turmoil that's coming out of a once-in-a-generation event; an epidemic,” said Politis.
“I suspect, we're going to continue to see some bumps on the road here, not so much with the labour relations, but with other parts of the turmoil to come out of the pandemic because we all kind of figured our way through how we're bridging the gap between what existed before and what exists now.”
It was Coun. France Bouvier who asked for the report about the strike costs, which was approved by council.
The motion notes that contractors were hired to maintain garbage, water treatment plant and ice surfacing and that some were being lodged in order to provide their respective services.
Bouvier asked that the report break down all of the expenses of the contractors used during the weeks of striking versus the breakdown of what it would have cost the town to operate with their own employees.
“I've submitted this motion because I was approached by a few of our citizens wanting to know and online as well. They want to know the cost of what this cost us as a community and I don't blame them. We have an idea as councillors, yes, but they also would like to know and they should be privy to that information,” Bouvier said.
Coun. Sylvie Charron-Lemieux agreed with Bouvier’s comments.
“I think they also need to know if there was a savings to the town or a cost to the town, because ultimately, they're paying for it,” she said.
While it wasn’t specified when the information will be disclosed, Politis said there’s nothing to hide.
“Transparency will always be there. It’s the public’s money that we spent. What was spent was spent in necessity,” he said.
Coun. Rodney Hoogenhoud said he believes it will be a challenging task.
“As much as everybody wants to have transparency and the numbers exposed, if I was probably to ask, or if council was to ask any of our staff, we all know that the services provided during the strike did not meet what your normal output is when you have full staffing levels,” he said.
"You didn't have a mechanic in the shop, there's equipment not ready for winter, holes weren't fixed, ice went in late. There's many variables that come into play here. I do recognize trying to take that into consideration. But there's an opportunity cost that may not be calculated in here that may force those numbers to go one way or the other.”
Coun. Marck Recoskie said they did the best they could.
“The taxpayers of Cochrane expected services no matter what happened. If the costs are one way or the other, the taxpayers of Cochrane still had services. They may not have been as good as it was with the employees, but they still had water and they still had garbage pickup,” he said.
Politis said they take a lot of pride in their employees.
“Everybody's happy that our employees are back to work. We take a lot of pride in our employees and the work that they provide for us,” he said.
“They certainly demonstrate to the rest of the region that Cochrane's municipal operations are very well run, very well managed, and very well adapted. There’s backlog that needs to be caught up on, which I'm sure the employees are very eager to get to as well. So we look forward to that.”
Politis said they planned to discuss the topic further in closed session.
“We'll have some discussions in closed on transitioning now between the strike environment, if you will, to what we need to get done and trying to prioritize some different areas in the operation,” he said.
The strike was tough, said Coun. Susan Nelson.
“I just want to see our staff looked after and our community members looked after,” she said.
“If we could come up with any ideas on building a healthy community and, you know, doing presentations, bringing people together, ask where they want to see our community go, do some team building exercises, I just think it'd be worthwhile.”