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Food for thought in final fire dispatch report
GREGG CHAMBERLAIN gregg.chamberlain@eap.on.ca
of its fire dispatch system through its own annual budget. Client municipalities like Clarence-Rockland pay a fixed rate based on local population size. If Ottawa gains more clients for its fire dispatch setup or loses any, it does not affect the fixed rate for client municipalities. Financing for Hawkesbury’s fire dispatch service is more dependent on its clients. Three-quarters of the cost is covered through client fees from the other municipalities based on their population sizes, average number of calls per year, and the number of fire stations involved. If a new client, like Clarence-Rockland, were added on, then the costs for the other client municipalities would decrease. The report noted that the dispatch service fee for Hawkesbury will be $4.46 per capita in 2016, for its present clients. If Clarence-Rock- land signed up as a client, then the fee would drop to $3.33 per capita. Clarence-Rockland currently pays $3.25 per capita for Ottawa dispatch service. Joining the Hawkesbury setup would mean both an increase in the per capita fee plus a one-time $38,000 setup cost for Clarence-Rockland, something the municipality has rejected. If any of Hawkesbury’s present client mu- nicipalities chose to switch over to Ottawa, they would have a lower per capita fee of $3.25 for their fire dispatch. The costs for themunicipalities staying withHawkesbury would then increase from the current $4.46. «If one or more municipalities decide
to switch from Hawkesbury Fire Dispatch to Ottawa Fire Dispatch,” the report noted, “the costs for the remaining municipali- ties will increase, causing the remaining municipalities to also change fire dispatch service providers.” The end result would be that the Hawkes- bury dispatch service could prove too ex- pensive tomaintain and it would shut down, forcing everyone to then contract with Ot- tawa. The report noted that each municipality will have to look at new paging and radio link setup for their fire departments because the current equipment is getting older and will soon reach the end of its reliability lifespan. Municipalities need to start budget planning now for replacing that equipment within the next few years. If one or more choose to switch over to Ottawa for fire dispatch, then they also have to budget for the connection fee to the Ottawa system. For now counties council has accepted the final report and the mayors will pres- ent it to their own individual councils for review and recommendations. Warden Kirby noted he will present the report to his own council in East Hawkesbury Township at its next meeting, and he expects that all the mayors for municipalities that contract with Hawkesbury for fire dispatch may need to get together soon for amutual consultation. “At one point or another,” he said, “we’re going to have to sit down and decide what we’re going to do.”
Either things stay the same or the City of Ottawa takes over fire dispatch service for every municipality in Prescott-Russell. Those are themain choices given in a final consultant’s report to the counties council. Peter Gamble, of theWillowFalls Consult- ing firm, presented the United Counties of Prescott-Russell council (UCPR) with a final verbal summary of his company’s analysis of fire dispatch service for the municipalities in Prescott and Russell counties. During a later interview, Warden Robert Kirby said Gamble’s presentation didn’t tell themayors on counties council anything different from what they already knew after reading the pre- liminary report fromWillowFalls Consulting. «There was no surprise,» Kirby said. Right now, both the City of Ottawa and the Town of Hawkesbury provide fire dispatch service for parts of Prescott-Russell.The City of Clarence-Rockland contracts with Ottawa while the other seven municipalities and also North Glengarry and North Stormont townships contract with Hawkesbury. While the final report listed five possible options in the cost analysis for future fire dispatch services, the executive summary noted that the whole issue came down to an «either/or» decision situation for both the counties and themunicipalities contracting for fire dispatch service. «There are really only two viable options
for themunicipalities who are currently get- ting fire dispatch services fromHawkesbury Fire,» stated the report. «All municipalities stay with Hawkesbury Fire (or), all munici- palities switch to Ottawa Fire.» The report noted that both setups provide bilingual service for callers. Radio commu- nication between the dispatch centre and trucks out on a call is also bilingual for the Hawkesbury setup while Ottawa Fire Dis- patch uses just English for its radio commu- nication. The report noted that among the UCPRmunicipalities and the two townships outside of Prescott-Russell, there is a range of English/French language skills among members of each department with some firefighters fluent only in either French or Englishwhile others have a range of bilingual ability from fluent to functional. The City of Ottawa covers all the cost
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