Editor: Preparing for emergencies responsibly means telling residents what a proposed fire service change would cost, what problem it would solve, and whether existing local resources are being used effectively.
The International Association of Fire Fighters censured fire chief Christopher Case and assistant chief Dan Parent after Chatham-Kent’s unionized firefighters raised concerns about leadership, training and equipment. Those concerns deserve a serious response. A union censure is an expression of the union’s position; it does not settle every question about how Chatham-Kent should staff its 19 fire stations.
I am also troubled by complaints that firefighters could not make a deputation to council. Section 7.2 of Chatham-Kent’s procedure bylaw says municipal employees cannot make deputations. The bylaw also permits the clerk to refuse a deputation about a labour or management dispute.
Residents should be told about those rules when the refusal is discussed, so they can judge what happened fairly.
Councillor Ryan Doyle’s motion for an in-depth review of fire operations offers a useful way forward. Council has approved a review of response times, deployment, volunteer use, staffing options, costs and community impacts, with up to $50,000 for external consulting.
The public should see the results, including the costs of labour disputes and arbitration, the cost of upstaffing career crews for calls in volunteer station areas, and a comparable breakdown for operating a volunteer hall and a continuously staffed career hall.
Calls involving Tilbury and other communities need particular scrutiny. Tilbury has a volunteer station. If career crews are regularly sent long distances to supplement its firefighters, council should publish the call records, reasons for dispatch, arrival times and costs. If local resources can safely handle particular calls, the deployment plan should reflect that. If they cannot, residents deserve to know why and what it would take to fix the gap.
The suggestion of 80 additional career firefighters also demands a credible price tag. Chatham-Kent’s 2024 Fire Master Plan estimated that adding 44 career firefighters to staff two more front-line vehicles around the clock was beyond the municipality’s circumstances over the plan’s 10-year horizon.
Eighty hires would require an even more substantial, recurring commitment. No one should present that scale of change as a simple solution without showing its staffing, equipment, facility and tax impacts.
Career and volunteer firefighters both serve this community. My concern is that selective claims about deputations or emergency coverage can mislead the public, even when the underlying safety concerns are sincere.
Let’s prepare for emergencies with transparent evidence, sound deployment decisions and a plan taxpayers can sustain.
Jane Laliberte
Tilbury
