It looks like congratulations will soon be in order for the town and county on coming to a fire services agreement.
Barrhead town councillors approved their part of the agreement on Sept. 11 and by the time you read this it is expected that their county counterparts will seal the deal with their approval.
And while I am happy the two parties were able to come to an amicable agreement that both parties seem pleased with, I am a little disappointed.
Largely because the agreement does not seem all that different from the previous 2012 version. As we published in our March 7 editorial, we were hoping the agreement would be a true partnership with the municipalities equally sharing all costs across the board.
Aside from some cosmetic changes such as the Barrhead Fire Services being renamed to the Barrhead Regional Fire Services, as far as I can tell not a lot has changed.
Basically the agreement says, the town and county will share equally the fixed costs of running the service, such as the salaries for full-time firefighters, training, equipment maintenance, etcetera. It also states that the two municipalities will be responsible for the cost of responding to calls within their own borders. Each municipality will also shoulder the cost of any specialized equipment that will mainly be used for calls in their own jurisdiction. Again from my understanding that is what they have been doing for a number of years.
It also means there is the potential for conflict, such as was seen when the Grizzly Trail Fire Rescue Association, which is basically the non-profit fundraising arm of the fire department raised money for a specialized jet boat to be used on search and rescue type operations. From our understanding, the county members of the committee nixed the idea because they were concerned that they would be saddled with the potential added expenses, as the majority of its usage would be in the county.
Although I haven’t made up my mind on whether the county and town should amalgamate, I believe there are certain services the two municipalities need to share equally. As mentioned above one is the fire department — the other is emergency planning. Currently, each municipality has its own emergency plan instead of a combined regional plan. I think this is a mistake.
If something untoward, on the scope of a major flooding, toxic spill or wildfire would hit either one of our communities it would take the combined efforts of both the town and county to deal with it. Something I learned personally during my time living in B.C. and as a radio operator with the Central Okanagan Regional District (CORD) Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) communication unit helping out during numerous forest fires, including this summer.
Barrhead isn’t immune to potential disaster and it is only a matter of time until one strikes. When it does I hope our two municipalities activate one emergency plan.
