In the August 2025 Bargaining Update released last month, Alberta’s jobs, economy, trade, and immigration ministry indicated that a new collective agreement for Calgary firefighters had been reached.
Settled on 17 March 2025, the new agreement is between the City of Calgary and Local 255 of the International Association of FireFighters, otherwise known as the Calgary FireFighters Association.
CAF was negotiating on behalf of nearly 1,700 workers employed in the Calgary fire department, which includes not only firefighters but also airport coordinators, wellness coordinators, fire marshalls, inspections coordinators, investigations coordinators, safety codes officers, technical services officers, mechanics, paramedics, and medical officers, as well as those working in training, recruitment, health and safety, emergency management, investigations, hazardous materials, and community safety.
The new 3-year agreement replaces the previous agreement, which does not expire until the end of next year. The previous agreement expired at the end of 2023, so it took over a year to get their new collective agreement.
Workers covered by this new agreement can expect to see 3 wage increases during the life of the contract.
| 1 January 2024 | 3.75% |
| 1 January 2025 | 4.00% |
| 1 January 2026 | 4.00% |
That’s a combined total increase of 11.75%, or an average annual increase of 3.92%. In their previous contract, they got 3% per year, on average.
Here are some highlights of other changes in the new collective agreement.
Probationary periods will be 18 months for firefighters and 12 months for all other workers under this agreement. Previously, the agreement seemed to indicate that the probationary period was 18 months for everyone.
Under the previous agreement, fire staff members would alternate between 5 9-hour shifts one week and 3 9-hour shifts a single 8-hour shift the next week. That has changed to 4 10-hour shifts each week, alternating between Monday through Thursday and Tuesday through Friday.
Maintenance workers have also moved from a similar alternating schedule to one of 4 10-hour days each week. Most of the maintenance workers will be scheduled Monday through Thursday, and the rest will cover Tuesday through Friday.
If the employer wants to schedule workers outside of their regularly scheduled duties, they must now give them notice of at least 14 days and pay them 1.5 times their regular pay rate.
Standby pay has changed from $25 a day to 1 hour’s pay for after hours on regular workdays and 2 hours’ pay on regular days off.
Parental leave must be completed within 78 weeks of birth or placement. Under the previous agreement, it “may be available with the year that the child arrives home”.
The new collective agreement introduces a supplemental unemployment benefit plan, which are additional payments available to those who take maternity leave and are receiving EI benefits. The plan lasts for only 16 weeks and will be 95% of their regular biweekly earnings, minus the EI benefits they are receiving.
If a worker dies on the job, their spouse is entitled to a supplementation of compensation payment, which would be equivalent to the worker’s regular biweekly base pay until what would have been their 60th birthday. The benefit has been extended to include dependent children and common-law spouses. There is also now an option for the payout to be a lump sum payment, rather than be spread out to 26 times a year.
Under the previous contract, workers on disability leave for between 5 days and 21 days had to get their physician to complete an adjudication form. Now, they can have a psychologist or psychotherapist complete it.
