North Battleford city council has received a full fire services review report, and with it are a number of major recommendations for the future.
One recommendation in the report, from T.L. Powell and Associates Ltd. from Ontario, was that the city investigate a proposal to provide emergency medical services through the fire service.
Consultant Tom Powell, who made the presentation to council Monday, suggested this is popular in other communities throughout western Canada.
He suggested this model could be a source of additional revenue for the City.
"It seems to make a lot of sense from a business point of view, it makes a lot of sense from an operational point of view," said Powell.
"When we look at costs of funding your fire service at this time, there's an opportunity here, we think, a possibility of better revenue for you in terms of funding not only the EMS but also the fire service. It's something that we think ought to be investigated."
Another recommendation - one that may prove controversial for some - involved possibly integrating the management of the two fire departments in Battleford and North Battleford.
His report stated a bipartisan committee could be struck consisting of representatives from the City, the Town and the Province, to review options for delivery of fire services through an integrated management system. But his report did acknowledge some of the politics around the topic, stating "there appears to be no desire on the part of individuals who carry old wounds from previous political decisions."
At City Hall Monday, Powell suggested "in the very early stages of this we think you're going to have to do some sitting down and talking to people," he said. He said there were opportunities for improved services, and also opportunities financially, with this proposal.
Other recommendations in the report covered the areas of administration organization and staffing, fire prevention, vehicles and equipment and water supplies.
One of the main ones regarded the fire hall itself, with recommendations to take a test to determine the quality of the air upon activation of the bay exhaust system, as well as to install a vehicle exhaust system to prevent fumes from all the vehicles from entering the work environment of the station.
Also recommended was a proposal for an emergency power generator of sufficient size to power all of the fire station and be permanently attached to the building, to automatically activate in the event the electrical power is lost.
There were also staffing recommendations including one to fill one of the two deputy fire chief positions that have been vacant for some time. The report also dealt with such things as response times, fire prevention and education activities, fire underwriting and other areas.
In all, some 38 recommendations were made in the report, which was commissioned by the City with the encouragement of Fire Chief Albert Headrick and the fire department.
"It's just something that needed to be done to retain our position in the fire ratings, for instance, the insurance ratings and maybe even improve upon them," said Mayor Ian Hamilton.
Hamilton told reporters the next step will be "to take this into our deliberations going forward."
"Certainly we will be working with the fire chief as we look forward to improving the services of our fire department, if necessary," said Hamilton.
"We will be priorizing some of these recommendations. Certainly all of these recommendations cannot be undertaken in a short period of time, but we will look into what ones make sense currently and look into an opportunity to phase in others that we deem necessary. And there may be some recommendations that council is just not willing to accept."
As for some of the more eyebrow-raising recommendations such as combining North Battleford and Battleford Fire and also combining EMS, Hamilton seemed non-committal, indicating council would deliberate on those initiatives in the report.
"We will take them into consideration as it relates to our city. We will act upon them as it best fits our community."
