As communities grow in Glengarry, so does the need for emergency services.
Both North and South Glengarry Fire Departments continue to recruit and train firefighters. The departments rely on volunteers who are paid on an on-call basis. Considering the small population and low number of incidents, this method has proven successful in the past.
However, as communities grow and expectations of residents’ change, questions are being raised if the current model needs to be addressed. At the recent budget meeting, North Glengarry Chief Matthew Roy mentioned the challenges his department is facing.
“Many of our firefighters work outside of North Glengarry so their ability to respond to daytime incidents during the week can be challenging. We are grateful to the local employers who support us and allow their staff to leave if there is an incident,” said Roy.
In 2024, North Glengarry Fire Services responded to more than 275 incidents – a number that continues to grow each year, putting additional demands on the Fire Department.
North Glengarry Fire Services is exploring options to allow it to continue to deliver the high level of service expected by the community. “One of the options we are exploring is a pilot staffing model which will have firefighters on standby at one of our three stations during the week. This will be further explored in 2025 as we continue to raise the bar with our level of service and training,” said Roy.
South Glengarry Fire Chief Dave Robertson said the municipality no longer has as many local employers as in the past, forcing people to seek employment further away. “Our communities are changing,” he said. “Historically, most villages had a grocery store, a small engine shop, mechanics, agricultural retailers, etc. Today, there are fewer of these businesses if any at all. Without local employers, our members are now employed in our larger towns or outside of our municipally all together. This means that they are available at night but not on weekdays,” Robertson noted.
The change from small farms to larger agriculture enterprises has meant that farmers can’t as easily drop what they are doing to respond to a call.
Firefighters are also dealing with changes in the type of incidents to which they respond, requiring expanded training. Forty per cent of incidents firefighters respond to are technical rescues involving hazardous materials, water rescue or vehicle extraction which require specialized training. In addition, the fire departments are seeing increased calls for carbon monoxide monitoring as well as medical-related incidents where fire services assist paramedics.
Robertson doesn’t feel at this point full-time responders are needed in South Glengarry. By using technology, staff can monitor who is able to respond and the number of firefighters needed for the incident. If it is a larger callout, then firefighters know they are needed to leave their work and attend the incident. And in a large-scale event, agreements between neighbouring fire departments exist to enhance available crews. “Continuing to adjust our response models and working with neighbouring municipalities who are experiencing the same staffing changes, will bring the most efficient answers to our combined struggles in the near term,” said Chief Robertson.
South Glengarry has stations in Glen Walter, Williamstown, Lancaster, North Lancaster and Martintown. North Glengarry has firehouses in Alexandria, Maxville and Apple Hill.
These are among the 437 fire departments and over 18,000 volunteer firefighters in the province. The Ontario government is investing over $10 million to help train both career and volunteer firefighters.