'No ill feelings': CBRM councillor, senior fire services staff work out differences
Saltwire.com
SYDNEY, N.S. — A possible communication misunderstanding, a forum to explain what transpired during a verbal exchange and even some unprompted apologies resulted from a Wednesday morning city hall meeting between senior fire services staff and a municipal councillor in light of an abrupt end to a recent fire and emergency services committee session.
Cape Breton Regional Municipality Coun. Gordon MacDonald, regional fire services Chief Michael Seth and deputy chief of operations Chris March met with CBRM Mayor Amanda McDougall-Merrill and chief administrative officer Marie Walsh to hear all sides of what transpired on the June 21 get-together inside council chambers.
Near the end of that June 21 meeting, Seth and March walked out as MacDonald disputed a staff issue paper on efforts to recruit and retain volunteer firefighters in the region.
'Agreed to disagree on our differences'
MacDonald told the Cape Breton Post he didn’t want to get into the specific details of Wednesday's meeting, but would only say “we wrapped it up, agreed to disagree on our differences and looked for a way forward. Everyone seemed receptive and it all worked out OK.”
MacDonald first requested the issue paper on volunteer firefighter recruitment and retention during a November 2021 fire and emergency services committee meeting. Fire staff did write up a report for January 2022 but it wasn’t submitted until this past March.
At the start of the June 21 committee session, MacDonald asked committee members, Deputy Mayor James Edwards and municipal clerk Deborah Campbell Ryan to add the staff report to the session’s agenda — the report wasn’t slated to be discussed that day — because, in MacDonald’s words, the paper didn’t appear to be complete or address what the councillor initially asked for.
While Seth and March tried to respond to MacDonald’s concerns once the agenda item was raised, MacDonald felt senior fire staff missed the point of the issue paper and, when the proceedings got into a heated back-and-forth, Seth and March stood up and exited the council chambers, with co-committee members, Emergency Management manager Bruce MacDonald and Deputy Fire Chief Craig MacNeil leaving soon after.
'A little bit of miscommunication'
“It was the first time I've ever seen anything like that,” MacDonald said Wednesday. “I was surprised.
“I think there was a little bit of miscommunication that may have led to some difference of opinion.”
The District 1 councillor said the mayor and CAO “just let us take it out and share our differences and our thoughts and how we can work together to better for the committee. On the go-forward, some lessons have been learned and we should be able to work through them. I think we have a good committee.”
Speaking on behalf of himself and Seth, Deputy Chief of Operations March said he felt the Wednesday meeting was productive and everyone left on better terms.
'No ill feelings'
“I think things are only going to get better as a result of that meeting,” he said. “Nobody left that meeting (with) any ill feelings, bad will or anything like that because I know that (the mayor, CAO and everyone else) got that it was very tense meeting (on June 21).”
March said MacDonald’s concerns with the staff report arose before the June 21 committee meeting.
“It kind of started the meeting before the June 21 one, when he wasn’t happy with my issue paper,” March said. “The paper was voted on and accepted at that (earlier) meeting. Then there were some other circumstances and a conversation that was held on an elevator. He felt that (the report) should be brought back to the committee.
“When it was brought back on June 21, there were some unnecessary statements that were made that I didn’t think were fair. And we also didn’t think that once that issue paper was voted on and accepted that it should have been brought back on the table.
“So the fire chief thought it was best that we vacate. And to be clear, he did ask all four of us to vacate. But the deputy chief is new to this role and he didn’t really know what to do (in that situation). And Bruce is very non-confrontational, so it took him by a loop.”
Issue paper report
March’s 2022 issue paper addressed more the recruitment side, as he felt the regional fire services “do not see an issue with retention,” the issue paper read, adding that generally volunteer firefighters step away whenever employment or family matters require them to move away, age or physical conditions force firefighters to retire or members feel the job is not for them.
The report concluded that, among its recommendations, volunteer fire department staff from around the CBRM should get together and brainstorm recruitment, with fire service administrators helping with recruitment “through support, funding, guidance, organization and implementation,” the issue paper read.
Coun. MacDonald felt the report didn’t address what he requested, followed by the aforementioned verbal exchange and abrupt end to the meeting.
While March said there were no specific outcomes from the Wednesday morning discussion, “other than everyone understanding where everybody was coming from. Anyone who wanted to make a point to the fire chief that maybe he shouldn’t have left the June 21 meeting did make their point; and he got to explain why he left … in support of me. There was a lot of background stuff that a lot of people may not have understood.”
'Unsolicited apologies'
March added that, to his surprise, there were also “some unsolicited apologies.”
“Everyone was very respectful, very fair,” he said. “Once the meeting went on, it started getting more productive. Someone would say, ‘Oh, if that’s the way you took what I said, then I apologize for that.’ None of these were solicited.”
As far as March and MacDonald, respectively, are concerned now, they said, what happened on June 21 is all “water under the bridge” and “yesterday’s news.”
The Post contacted McDougall-Merrill and Walsh regarding the Wednesday meeting but neither were available for comment.