When council asked administration for a 10 year breakdown of fire department costs ahead of the 2026 budget vote, the information never arrived. The City released a 376 page budget package with projections, plans and future capital forecasts, but did not include a historical operating review of Lloydminster Fire Rescue.
The Border Pulse reconstructed that history using every publicly available City budget between 2014 and 2026. The results show a department that has grown from a largely volunteer operation into a fully staffed, multi station service with one of the fastest rising cost curves in the municipality.
Council did not receive this information before the budget debate. The public did not receive it either.
A 746 per cent increase in 12 years
In 2014, the fire department operated with an annual budget of roughly 993 thousand dollars. In the 2026 draft budget, that number reaches 8.4 million dollars. The increase is 746 per cent over the span of 12 years.
Earlier budgets show a small, mostly volunteer service with annual spending between 1.3 and 1.5 million dollars through 2017. Costs remain relatively stable during those years, with only modest fluctuations.
The turning point
The sharp climb begins between 2018 and 2021. Those years include the restructuring of the fire department and the shift toward a more professionalized model. The 2019 budget identifies $1.1 million in “changes to structure of fire department,” but the City did not publish a standalone fire operating total that year.
By 2020, the fire service’s net cost to taxpayers is listed at 2.8 million. By 2021, fire spending reaches $3.95 million. By 2022, it is roughly $4.68 million. From 2021 onward, yearly increases become the norm.
What the numbers reveal
The five most recent budgets show the clearest trend.
Fire operating expenses:
2022: $5,671,600
2023: $6,052,000
2024: $6,318,000
2025: $6,498,021
2026: $8,402,310
The single largest jump occurs between 2025 and 2026, when the department transitions to a two station model with two full time and two part time firefighters at each station. That change adds about 1.9 million dollars to the annual cost.
The City attributes $1.2 million of the increase to the new staffing model, but the remaining rise is not detailed in the draft budget.
Missing years, missing explanations
The most significant structural changes to the fire department appear during the same years the City did not publish the department’s individual operating totals. Those are the years immediately before fire spending accelerates.
The 2018 and 2019 budgets do not provide fire specific totals, even though they show a three million dollar jump in protective services spending and identify $1.1 million tied to changes in the fire department’s structure. Without a complete year to year breakdown, taxpayers cannot see which operational changes drove the largest increases or when those decisions were made.
Why it matters
Fire spending now represents one of the largest components of Lloydminster’s municipal budget. It also drives three per cent of the proposed 4.08 per cent tax increase for 2026.
Council asked for this information because residents deserve clarity about how the department has changed, how much it costs and why.
The City did not provide it.
So The Border Pulse did.
