Editorial

The draft of a consultant’s report looking into the structure and delivery of firefighting services in Kings County offers 60 recommendations. It was presented recently to the Kings Partnership Steering Committee’s (KPSC) fire services task force.

The consultants aren’t recommending specifically that any departments be eliminated, but they have recommended a comprehensive fire station location study.

Kings County councillor Wayne Atwater, KPSC and fire task force member, told his KPSC colleagues that the fire service review would be the biggest political bomb they would ever have to deal with and the matter would boil down ultimately to a political decision.

Atwater is right to say that the fuse on a large powder keg could be lit if the matter isn’t handled carefully. The consultants indicated there is overlap in fire services between Kentville and Wolfville with five different departments, including Kentville, New Minas, Greenwich, Port Williams and Wolfville. Once, or if, the KPSC decides to undertake the comprehensive study of fire station location, it would be their choice how to act on the findings.

There may be areas of overlap based on an accepted standard response time for firefighters, but we suspect hard feelings would be created if any departments were eliminated or amalgamated. After all, our fire service is based on volunteers and volunteers come from the communities served.

It’s true as well that much of the equipment in these stations belongs to the community and the departments because they were the ones that had to raise the money to purchase it. Our tax money pays for the operation of local departments and, to an extent, ownership of them is in the hands of the public and the volunteers.

Thus, a lot of public consultation should take place before any of the consultants’ recommendations are enacted. It would be a shame if our volunteers ended up feeling unwanted or alienated because of a decision to close departments.

Although this hasn’t been recommended specifically, it isn’t outside the realm of possibility. There would no doubt be uproar from residents if the fire department in their community was considered redundant.

On the other hand, we must recognize there’s duplication of equipment and there may be cost savings for taxpayers once the extent of the duplication is determined. One of the key recommendations of the consultants is to establish a single Valley Fire Commission for administrative purposes. As pointed out by the consultants, you must address issues of governance before issues relating to financing can be addressed.

Perhaps the best way to ensure that the financing is fair and equitable is the establishment of such an administrative body. The Valley Fire Commission would be composed of elected municipal officials. A Valley fire commission advisory committee would be established, composed of fire chiefs and the committee would act as the financial coordinator for the departments.

The task force plans to have more feedback from the fire chiefs and prepare an official response for the consultants prior to the final report. The consultants must then table the report with the KPSC, which would make recommendations to the four partner municipalities: the towns of Wolfville, Kentville, Berwick and the County of Kings.

This issue is a matter of public safety as much as it revolves around volunteers, and we’ll be interested to see what develops.