Dysart et al Mayor Murray Fearrey is breathing a sigh of relief.

Fearrey says he is glad the provincial government will exclude workers that provide essential services from the on-call provision of Bill 148.

Had the amendment not been made to the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, municipalities would be required to pay employees, like volunteer firefighters, for being on-call.

Fearrey wonders if the province realized that municipal budgets would have ballooned had there been no changes.

Fearrey didn’t have an exact figure on the potential impact, but figures the original form of the bill would have added close to a million dollars to Dysart’s budget for 2018.