A fire services contract between the RM of North Battleford and the City of North Battleford ended on the last day of 2018, and the RM is moving on and establishing its own volunteer fire department.
According to RM of North Battleford Administrator Debbie Arsenault, the RM’s volunteer fire department has 21 volunteers. Four are fully trained. Arsenault said training has been ongoing and the department is in the process of obtaining the necessary equipment.
Come April 1, Arsenault said, the volunteer fire department should be able to handle structure fires, wildland fires, vehicle extrication (involving Jaws of Life), STARS and EMS assistance, fire inspections and chemical spills.
The new fire chief, Arsenault said, is Neil Good, who has worked with the Town of Battleford’s fire department.
Arsenault also said the RM was “hoping to enter into some mutual aid agreements with the neighbouring fire departments,” such as Meota, Battleford, and the City of North Battleford. Mutual aid agreements allow two parties to give assistance to one another during emergency situations.
The volunteer fire department came about as a result of the city and the RM being unable to agree on a new contract.
The two governments had a five-year contract, in which the RM paid the city $155,000 per year for fire and rescue service.
The city’s asking price for 2019 increased.
One of the offers from the city consisted of about $220,000 each year for five years, and another consisted of $205,000.
According to Arsenault, a letter the city sent to the RM dated Feb. 12 outlined two offers: a seven-year contract in which the costs for the first year began at $170,000 and increased thereafter, and a one-year offer costing $250,000.
According to Arsenault, the RM’s council thought the prices were too high.
“We were kind of anticipating the fact that there was going to be an increase,” Arsenault said, although she said the asking prices came as “a shock.”
The city agreed to provide temporary service until the end of March.
According to North Battleford City Manager Randy Patrick, the logic behind the increases in offers was that $155,000 was about seven per cent of total fire services expenses, which was around $2 million, when the agreement began five years ago.
Patrick said the city’s new price for fire service to the RM was about seven per cent of fire services expenses now, budgeted at $2,750,000 for 2019. For a number of reasons, the city fire and protective services budget has increased since 2014.
Arsenault said when the RM and the city originally entered an agreement five years ago, the cost of fire services to the RM wasn’t based on a formula or a percentage, but rather was a fixed number.
The approximate seven per cent of fire department costs, Arsenault said, “wasn’t a formula the city used before.”
Patrick said he wanted to avoid a situation where North Battleford taxpayers subsidized the RM.
Patrick also said the city won’t be doing a mutual aid agreement with the RM, calling such an agreement with the RM “kind of lopsided,” adding “there's no real mutual aid there.”
When asked if the city has to make up the revenue by other means, Patrick said yes, adding “we’re working on it.”
“When you lose a contract you have to deal with it somewhere,” Patrick said.
Arsenault said the RM is hoping false alarms don’t become a problem, and estimated there had been less than five false alarms in the past five years.
The RM had a volunteer fire department in the past, Arsenault said, adding that if fires occurred, residents helped out anyway, including those who “go out with tractors and discs” during grassfires.
A notice on the RM’s website says the RM is fundraising for their fire department. Initial capital costs are slated at $500,000.
According to the 2014 budget document, 13 jurisdictions had previously received a response for fire services from the city, although “effective Dec. 31, 2013, the RM of North Battleford will be the only one of 13 previous jurisdictions to experience a response from the City of North Battleford.”
