Fire Chief Dan Smith presented city council Monday with a wide-ranging report on ongoing upgrades toward a more responsive Belleville Fire and Emergency Service to meet higher protective demands by a growing city population.
The staff report was prepared at the behest of Thurlow Ward Coun. Paul Carr in a March 10 meeting after he noted he had concerns about upgrades to urban and rural firefighter recruitment, deployment and operations despite what he called information gaps.
His concerns at the time were voiced amid pending Fire Master Plan efforts by the city fire department to provide higher urban/rural protective services with corresponding property taxes for areas of the city such as newer urban/rural neighbourhoods in the Cannifton area of Thurlow Ward.
At the earlier meeting, Carr asserted that he was reticent about elements of a new Fire Master Plan – already approved in July 2024 — and a Fire Station Relocation Plan still under consideration given they were being predicated on incomplete data collection.
In the fulsome fire report issued by Smith in response to Carr’s 11 written questions, the fire chief noted, “the gap analysis for data collection identifies that information on number of personnel on a responding apparatus has not been collected prior to 2024 within the rural suppression division.”
“In 2024 staff initiated data tracking through review of incident reports and entry into spreadsheets. Transitioning into 2025, staff are working with records management software providers to update incident reporting forms to capture how staff respond, which trucks they respond in and how many are responding in each apparatus.”
“Additionally, staff are working on improving the department response notification application to merge the rural and urban profiles to increase efficiencies and allow all responders across the department to see real-time data of who is responding with ease,” Smith informed.
Smith also confirmed in his report that no recommendations have been made to move toward a city wide, full time firefighter service that could see volunteer firefighter positions cease.
On Monday, however, Carr expressed concerns of “urban service creep” in light of the fire department increasing its full-time professional complement recently.
He cited the fire station relocation study which suggested services now rendered by volunteer firefighters be moved south although Carr acknowledged it was not a formal recommendation to council.
“These studies have and continue to result in urban service creep, which has contributed to higher budgetary costs over time and subsequent increased tax impacts. More recently, the consultant for the fire relocation study has suggested that Station 4, a wholly volunteer station, would be relocated further south and be staffed with full-time firefighters,” Carr said told council.
“Now, this hasn’t been a recommendation to come to council, but that is something that the consultant has suggested, and this is based on rural response times which were in some respects missing and recruitment drives, which have resulted in a lot of rural firefighters up until more recently, residing farther and farther from their responsible coverage areas and therefore impacting those response times,” Carr said.
Smith countered that volunteer firefighters continue to live in rural areas or at the very least along the urban/rural boundaries ensuring response times are being met.
Carr said, “I think it’s also important to note that you know when you start looking at that urbanization creep up into the volunteer area, we have to be mindful of collective agreements and the no contracting out clause, which is very well-known and has the implications of squeezing out the volunteers even more, which then has cost implications on top of it.”
“Other municipalities run with an urban-rural mix seem to be able to provide not only an effective fire and emergency services, but one that is fully integrated and cost-effective and that’s where my concern lies, and it’s important that city council see the big picture versus making decisions in piecemeal or isolation, only realizing the impact much after the fact. Taxpayers expect the prudent and efficient use of their tax dollars,” Carr said.
Fire Chief Smith told council no date has yet been set to work through the fire station relocation study as the city continues to work on implementing its Fire Master Plan.