‘I don’t support this:’ Ajax scraps firefighters application fee

As we told you in our last Speakers Corner report, people looking to be firefighters in Ajax were being charged a fee just to apply.

Days after our story aired, a big change was made.

“My son’s a firefighter in another community and it’s not appropriate to charge them an application fee,” said Wayne Murphy who lives in Ajax.

He joins others in the community voicing their concern after CityNews told you about the fee in a previous report.

“They are submitting an application for a job to help the community, why were they being charged?” asked Shannon Oyeniran.

The fee was $113 just to submit an application and it was only charged to people applying to two open firefighter positions, not for any other job posting on the Ajax website. That fee was also non-refundable, meaning if the person didn’t get the job they didn’t get the money back.

“I don’t support this,” said Ajax town councillor Joanne Dies.

A majority on the council agreed with her. In a vote last week, the council voted down the fee and had other questions about why it was even being charged.

CityNews discovered that the fee was being charged despite proper approval from town council. Any fee charged to the public has to first be approved by council and added to the town’s charges and fees bylaw.

This fee was not.

“It was my understanding that the fee was in the by-law and it was my oversight that I did not check,” said Chief Administrative Officer, Shane Baker.

Baker, who had worked in Richmond Hill where he says there is an application fee, assumed the fee was standard when it comes to firefighter positions. A big reason he says: the high number of applications they receive costs a lot of money to process. And that’s just on the front end.

“There are several tests for candidates that make it through the process that the town pays for as well,” Baker said. “These are at a cost to the taxpayer if we do not charge an application fee.”

Baker estimated it costs the town around $600 to process the applications from the time they’re received to the time a person is hired.

Baker explained that all the fees — even from candidates who are not successful — help offset the hiring costs.

“It’s like a lottery. They’re putting their money forward and they put it into a pool and they’re paying for the testing and admin and everything that needs to be done for whoever gets hired,” he said.

Baker said he was being proactive by collecting the fees. While there are currently only two open firefighter positions in Ajax, that may soon change. The town is considering a fire master plan that, if approved, could add up to 20 more positions in the growing community.

He said if that happens, the town will have a solid pool of candidates — based on this recruitment round — who’ve already applied and the fees collected would help pay for that process.

The plan did have some support on the council.

“I think any cost recovery that reduces the burden on the taxpayer is not a bad thing,” said councillor Sterling Lee.

He and Mayor Shaun Collier were the only two who voted to keep the fee. Collier said it was unfortunate the fee was being charged without proper approval and he credited Baker for being proactive to find ways to reduce burdens on taxpayers.

Collier also pointed out that the Ajax Professional Firefighters Association did not speak out against the fees.

“They have no problem with this and that’s good enough for me,” he said.

As for the rest of council? They say charging an application fee sends a wrong message about Ajax, at the wrong time.

“The timing is really wrong,” said Dies. “Particularly with COVID and so many people struggling that we are going to charge people to get a job to put an application in. I think it is our responsibility as a municipality to incur the costs to hire the staff whatever the circumstances are.”

In the end, with a vote of 5 to 2, the fees were scrapped. Any applicant who already paid, will get a refund.

“We can’t penalize people who are serious about getting a job by charging them to put in an application for a job,” Dies said.

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