A group of Indigenous wildland firefighters have been battling blazes alongside GNWT firefighters, but said they are being denied the same wages for the same work.
Josée-Anne Spirito, who is a vice president at the Public Service Alliance of Canada, told True North FM that mediation efforts have failed and arbitration has been delayed as the group waits for a response from the employer, Evergreen Forestry.
Spirito said the group of 32 Indigenous Wildland firefighters have been without a collective agreement since Dec. 2023.
“So, two seasons now that they are battling firefighters alongside our GNWT Wildland firefighters without having a collective agreement, and without having had a raise or wage increase at all.”
During that same period of time, the GNWT’s Wildland firefighters have had a 2.5 per cent increase per year for both years.
The group said their dispute is with the employer, Evergreen Forestry. The company is overseen by the Deh Gáh Got’ı̨ę First Nation and the Kátł’odeeche First Nation under contract with the GNWT.
True North FM reached out to Evergreen Forestry, Deh Gáh Got’ı̨ę First Nation and Kátł’odeeche First Nation, but has not received a response as yet.
Spirito said inequities in pay received by the Evegreen Forestry Wildland firefighters versus the GNWT Wildland firefighters were addressed in the previous contract, from 2019 to 2023. Spirito and the group worked hard to “close the gap.”
“So the contract we had before the one we’re currently negotiating, there was quite a significant gap in between what Wildland firefighters were making at the GNWT versus at Evergreen Forestry. During that round of negotiations, our members worked really hard in negotiations to achieve parity with the government of the Northwest Territories. There was 25 per cent difference in what they were being paid for doing the exact same work, working side by side but being employed with the GNWT versus Evergreen Forestry during the life of that collective agreement from 2019 to 2023,” said Spirito.
The group was able to address the pay gap in the previous contract, said Spirito.
“What we are continuing to look for during the life of the collective agreements that we’re currently negotiating is parity with these workers. So it’s 2.5 percent for 2024, 2.5 for 2025, and then for 2026, we would be looking forward to achieving. The same that GNWT would be negotiating in their future contracts.”
Spirito said the group had to apply legal pressure to get the employer to come to the table and over the last three years, the firefighters have been subject to a wage freeze.
“Considering the level of danger and the level of hard work that has to go into battling these fires, our members made it clear that it wasn’t fair.”
With the help of the Canadian Industrial Relations Board, the group was able to get the employer to agree to go to arbitration, but so far, they seem to keep hitting hurdles.
“Unfortunately, since we’ve agreed to go to arbitration in early August, there’s been sort of nothing coming back from the employer. We’ve tried really hard to set some dates and get these workers a deal at least by setting the dates for arbitration, which we know, arbitrators are busy. Therefore, it can take some time before we’re able to set the dates, but what we would really want for these workers is that they start the season in 2026 with a contract.
Spirito said the employer has not responded to attempts to schedule arbitration dates.
“It’s really disheartening on many levels because this workforce has been working incredibly hard. They have been working out of Fort Providence, trying to keep this community safe working so hard over the last few weeks, and before that as well. We know this work is dangerous, but it’s a workforce that’s very passionate about the work that they do, loves the work that they do.”
With the wildfire crises over the last few years, the group has seen a lot of action.
“The work that they do is dangerous; it doesn’t come without long hours,” said Spirito.
“They are there every day sometimes, when things get hard, long work hours with very few days off in between, battling what we know is a situation that is getting worse and worse every year,” added Spirito.
The work is critical to keeping people across the territory safe, which is something that Spirito said should be recognized and reflected in firefighters’ pay across the board.
“I hope that the employer can recognize how critical their work is and pay them what they deserve. We look at their GNWT counterpart and what we would like to see is for them to be getting the same pay for the same work.”
