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No conspiracies in the fire plan, mayor insists

Says attempt to be open and transparent inadvertently stressed out the community
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For something that caused anger, accusations, bitterness and fear, the fire optimization plan died a relatively quiet death Wednesday. (File).

For something that caused anger, accusations, bitterness and fear, the fire optimization plan died a relatively quiet death Wednesday.

The proposal to do a “full reconstruction” of the fire system, as one councillor put it, certainly got the community talking. The proposal to hire 58 career firefighters, close some fire halls and reduce reliance on volunteers revealed the divide between volunteers and career firefighters.

When the career firefighters commissioned a poll on fire services, volunteers responded with cries of bias and posted a “poll” on their Twitter feed that insulted careers.

Ward 2 Coun. Michael Vagnini was especially active in opposing the plan, which would have closed the Beaver Lake station in his ward. He presented a petition with more than 5,800 names opposed to the plan.

He also hinted at conspiracies, questioning why a boat was removed from the station. On Wednesday, he said he had uncovered disturbing information and accused staff of changing the presentation to the public.

“One city, one service, yet we've seen nine different presentations,” he said. “This report has brought the inner city in conflict with the outer city.”

When asked Wednesday why the plan was rolled out the way it was – with the controversial proposals going to the public before council weighed in – Mayor Brian Bigger said the intent was to be open and transparent, not cause panic.

"I think we can always learn from our processes and how they roll out,” Bigger said. “I don't think that was an expectation of our staff.

"But I think they've got a clear message now that the ultimate optimization that was proposed is not something that we can move forward with. Tonight is a clear separation from that optimization plan advice."

He rejected any suggestions there was subterfuge in the process. Instead, the public got to see the raw advice from staff that wasn't vetted by politicians first.

"I don't think there's any conspiracy anywhere here,” Bigger said. “I think this was advice from professional firefighters and from our chief and all the staff. They worked incredibly hard to develop an optimization plan."

But it was a big, complex and costly plan council wasn't prepared to implement, he said. The focus now will be on ensuring the current system works as well as it can.

"It's a more steady course of operational improvements that we need to do — and we heard about the health and safety topics in this — that will be the approach moving forward," Bigger said.  "Some of the questions were, why haven't you brought these requests for these funds to council in the past. That's something that a number of councillors took very seriously.

"So we're moving forward with the existing operations that are in place and we will continue to improve the work environments. Health and safety is always at the top of your list."

Staff has been directed to fix some of the ongoing issues and see what the current system looks like when it is optimized, he said.

"Let's see what the existing structure can do for us at this point and time."


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Darren MacDonald

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