Controversial fire chief’s contract extended for year
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/04/2019 (1807 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service Chief John Lane’s employment contract has been extended for a year.
The initial five-year contract expired on Sunday, but since neither the City of Winnipeg nor Lane expressed a desire to back out of the deal, it was renewed until at least April 2020.
“(The chief’s contract) contains an automatic renewal clause, unless either of the parties give sufficient notice that they don’t intend to renew,” Winnipeg chief corporate services officer Michael Jack told the Free Press on Wednesday.
“So he hasn’t re-signed a new contract, per se, but his existing contract, his first contract, renewed automatically by virtue of the agreement itself.”
Unless Lane or the city provide such notice, the contract will continue to renew each April.
Jack said the city frequently structures employment contracts for its senior management team in this fashion.
“It’s not just one additional year, per se, it’s year to year. Both of the parties retain the obligation to provide notice, and so it will continue to renew automatically hereafter.”
The city made no announcement regarding the extension of Lane’s contract, and only confirmed the details after repeated inquiries from the Free Press.
Jack said it’s not standard practice to announce a contract extension.
The city declined a request to interview Lane.
Prior to coming to Winnipeg, Lane spent two years as chief of the Prince George (B.C.) Fire Rescue Service, which serves a community of 72,000 people. Since his move, he’s been no stranger to the limelight.
On March 1, 2018, an arbitrator ordered the city to pay $115,000 in damages to Winnipeg paramedics after he found Lane guilty of breaching respectful workplace policies.
The dispute stemmed from a presentation the chief delivered in August 2015 about Winnipeg’s integrated fire-paramedic model, which resulted in 156 of the city’s paramedics filling a workplace grievance against Lane.
Arbitrator Arne Peltz agreed Lane publicly disrespected the paramedics, and noted the chief had refused to apologize in a timely manner. In his ruling, Peltz also criticized Lane’s honesty throughout the arbitration process.
“We’ve come to the end of a long road… I deeply regret my actions and I regret the distraction that those actions have caused. Really, now, it’s a matter of moving forward,” Lane said at a news conference at the time.
One week after the arbitration ruling, Lane publicly apologized to the paramedics.
Jack said Wednesday he feels there have been strides made to repair the damage — although he admits there’s more work to be done.
“I think we’ve been moving in a positive direction with the (paramedics union) since that time. I would be foolish to suggest that all fractures in the relationship are completely healed,” Jack said. “I can tell you, though, that we as a team continue to try to build that. We’re working at ensuring that happens.”
Lane has also come under fire for the number of out-of-province trips he’s taken while on the job (36 between April 2014 and December 2017) and the fact the city is paying $6,600 per year for him to pursue a master’s degree.
Lane cost Winnipeg taxpayers roughly $308,000 in 2017, including his $171,000 salary, the $115,000 arbitration ruling, as well as his schooling and travel expenses.
ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca
Twitter: @rk_thorpe
Ryan Thorpe
Reporter
Ryan Thorpe likes the pace of daily news, the feeling of a broadsheet in his hands and the stress of never-ending deadlines hanging over his head.