Closures-Amalgamation of Fire Halls in Report Not Being Made Public

Nov 19, 2019

In September, 2016 the City awarded a $186,000 contract to consulting firm Emergency Services International to produce a ‘Standards of Response Coverage’ report. See: Fire Hall in Waverley West

This report is identifying industry best practices in the field of ‘deployment analysis’ and ‘fire/paramedics station location analysis’ which will be used to determine the distribution and concentration of resources.

BUT the report has yet to be made public! Three years after being commissioned!

WHY NOT??

It it a well known fact – as stated by Chief Lane quite often – that some very old Fire Halls should be closed & some should be amalgamated to optimize service delivery, staffing & equipment allocation.

The first closures & amalgamations are anticipated to be in the wards of two Executive Policy Committee members. A tough sell for the Councillors who would be impacted? Why is this report not made public
for ALL of Council – when we are making budget decisions for the next four years?? Something very odd about the ‘timing’ & non-release of this report.

A preliminary analysis identified SAVINGS of upwards of $17M if closures & amalgamations occurred. Since when does a report take 3 yrs?!

See the chart. Winnipeg has 32 stations that became responsibility of City when surrounding municipalities amalgamated – locations now aren’t optimized to Winnipeg.

Report or no report – Waverley West is the size of Brandon & requires Fire / Paramedics.

But we’ve all paid for an analysis – and the report should be made public so savings can occur & Fire Halls can be built.