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Fire optimization plan: one city, one service may not be affordable

Some councillors say accepting slower response times in rural areas may be a way to keep costs under control
210317_firemeeting
Trevor Bain, Greater Sudbury's Chief of Fire and Paramedic Services, addresses city council Tuesday at Tom Davies Square. For the first time, city councillors grilled staff on the proposed fire optimization plan. Callam Rodya photo.

If there's one thing that the fire optimization plan has done, Ward 10 Coun. Fern Cormier said Tuesday, it has revealed the divisions that exist between emergency services.

Like most people, Cormier said he assumed everyone got along and worked harmoniously like they do on TV shows like Rescue 911.

“It's one big happy family on TV,” he said. “I didn't appreciate the challenges at that level.”

He learned some of the reality when he became a city councillor and started seeing what goes on behind the scenes. Now with paramedics, volunteer and career firefighters making their disagreements public as part of the controversial review process, Cormier said “now all that's out there” for the public to see.

Meeting on Tuesday, city councillors questioned staff for two hours about the plan, which outlines what it's going to cost to renovate and upgrade existing fire stations – about $4 million a year over the next 10 years. 

It also includes proposals for making response times more consistent across the city, a move that would cost more than $6 million a year and involve hiring 58 more career firefighters and reducing reliance on volunteers.

Those proposals have angered volunteers, while paramedics feel ignored in the plan, even though they are running at capacity. Taxpayers, meanwhile, are upset at the cost and the tax increases they would face.

While the most expensive option would allow firefighters to respond to emergencies in 90 per cent of the city within 10 minutes, Mayor Brian Bigger said at the start of the meeting that the politicians needed to find a balance between staff advice and concerns of citizens.

And Fire Chief Trevor Bain said the plan outlines what's necessary to reduce risks in all areas of the city, but they don't expect councillors to simply accept the entire plan.

“We're not looking for an all in, yes or no,” Bain said. “At the end of the day, it's totally up to council, and future councils.

“We expect you may ask us to go back and consider what some of this could look like … We will do our best to provide options.”

Bain said there are overlapping stations in some areas, and others where finding enough volunteers is a challenge because of smaller population and tougher requirements. And he said regardless of what council decides, there's a $36.5 million capital shortfall in fire – $20.4 million to renovate the city's 24 fire stations and $16.1 million for new equipment.

Bain said response times for stations staffed by volunteers are going be slower than career stations because full-time firefighters are in the station when calls come in. 

Volunteers, however, “they're out in the community, living their lives,” he said. “And no volunteer has to respond to any emergency.” 

That's why the response from volunteer stations takes longer than nine minutes to respond more than 50 per cent of the time.

“Our staffing model is not in line with community risks,” he said.

On that point, some councillors wondered whether the “one city, one service” model is feasible, given the costs and controversy.

While there are no set response time targets for Sudbury, Bain said they should be established, as other cities have done.

“We need to establish response time standards for our fire service that are similar, but not the same as paramedic services,” he said.

Bigger asked whether there could be different standards for different parts of the city. Under the current system, urban areas are largely served by career stations, and residents there pay higher property taxes to fund the service.

“If response time standards are proposed to be 90 per cent in nine minutes, will there be different standards for urban and rural areas?” Bigger asked.

“That is absolutely up to the will and want of council,” Bain replied. “They don't have to be 90 per cent of the time. You can, as council, say you want 70 per cent of the time. At the end of the day, this is something council will determine.”

Ward 3 Coun. Gerry Montpellier said at the outset that he “is not a fan of the optimization plan.”

One thing that bugs him is the repeated reference to the aging fire halls. They have been renovated several times, Montpellier said, and aren't in the poor state staff says.

“Staff keeps insisting it's like the 1940s, and it's really irritating,” Montpellier said. “I just do not get it.”

Bain replied that a report detailing the condition of each station will be available in a few weeks.

Ward 9 Coun. Deb McIntosh said it's a little tough getting a handle on the issue because Greater Sudbury is unique, with such a large geography and sparse population.  

“One thing I don't like about our city is we have no real comparators,” McIntosh said. “We can't compare ourselves to Burlington.”

She suggested staff research response times used by rural municipalities that use only use volunteers. Those times could become a benchmark for rural areas Greater Sudbury. That way people living in those areas will know living there means longer waits for fire response and can adjust accordingly.

“Then everybody will know what the response times are,” she said. “The one city, one service doesn't really apply -- it's cost prohibitive.”

The final report goes to city council April 26, but Bigger said that doesn't mean it's going to pass in full on that date. Instead, the focus will be on looking at service level response times and the state of equipment and stations, and work from there.

“We appreciate all of the work put into this plan, but I want to see how we can break this down into logical points that council can make decisions on,” Bigger said.


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