The future of Dryden's fire service is expected to be decided by the northwestern Ontario city's council Monday evening.
The department has been in flux since February, when more than 30 volunteer firefighters walked off the job, citing tensions between them and Dryden's fire chief Ryan Murrell.
The city subsequently gave firefighters a deadline to return to work, or their positions would be considered vacated. Some did return, but many chose not to.
Now, the city is examining how its firefighting service is delivered, and council is slated to vote Monday on which of four models the fire service will use going forward.
The existing model, which makes use of a high number of trained volunteers, remains an option going forward, if council chooses to maintain it, a report to council stated.
The current system, however, faces challenges the report continued: the average number of firefighters responding to calls has been falling as volunteers can have trouble getting released from work for daytime calls, and struggle with maintaining a good work-life balance.
"I know it's more difficult over the years, in an aging community, to get recruits," Dryden Mayor Greg Wilson said. "The main concern that we have, at the city, is making sure that we've got firefighters who are available, and will respond to fire calls."
Other options include a model that makes use of paid, on-call volunteers with enhanced training and rewards, as well as going to a mix of full-time and volunteer firefighters.
Work experience model
Wilson, however, said he expects Murrell to recommend an option which would see the city hire a certain number of recent firefighting program graduates on contract, and fill out the rest of the service with volunteers.
The recent grads would work in Dryden for up to a year and gain work experience before moving on to a career in a professional fire department elsewhere. The model, Wilson said, would ensure there are some firefighters available 24/7, so the initial response to a call would be fast.
The cost of the work experience model is about equal to that of the existing Dryden firefighter model, at just over $800,000 per year Wilson said.
"The tough thing is, you hate to see any division in your community," Wilson said. "This has caused some division, and I think we all feel badly about that."
"We want to move forward, we want to get things behind us, we want to make sure we have adequate fire protection."
Link to original article in CBC News: Dryden city council to vote on future of fire department