Canada/The Nation renews its agreement with Casselman for fire safety services

The situation remains difficult for The Nation's fire department, with staffing and equipment shortages. The municipality even had to confirm the renewal of an agreement with its neighbor Casselman to ensure that part of its territory would be served.

This agreement, which dates back several years, has been in place since January 1. It enables Casselman firefighters to provide fire protection services in certain areas of The Nation municipality. This will involve providing building and vehicle firefighting, rescue and hazardous materials response services in designated areas.

In recent years, the cost of this service has been fixed, with one price per year for automatic response to fire. This year, the amount has become variable, per call, and The Nation will pay a certain amount based on time and materials, with a rate of just under $560 per unit.

A spirit of collaboration

We're doing this in a spirit of cooperation, because we [the municipalities] are each faced with additional costs. And our taxing power is very limited. We have no choice but to work better together to ensure that everyone achieves their objectives," explains Casselman General Manager Yves Morrissette.

The extent of the problems surrounding The Nation's fire department is such that the municipality's mayor, Francis Brière, asked the municipal council on Monday for a report on the situation of fire departments on his territory, following repeated criticism from the public.

A first version of this report will be presented on October 21, according to The Nation Municipality's Director General, Pierre Leroux. In his view, this will provide a clear picture of the situation and allow us to consider possible improvements, but it will be costly.

Fire station closures and firefighter layoffs

Since September 1, The Nation Municipality has been closing the Fournier fire station, as recommended in its 2022 Fire Service Master Plan.

The review highlighted several factors, including a lack of volunteers, budget constraints and equipment needs. In addition, the fire station responds to very few calls, and its coverage areas overlap considerably with those of the St-Isidore and St-Bernardin fire stations, making it difficult to justify the cost of keeping it in operation, the municipality justifies in a press release.

In addition, The Nation also recently laid off five volunteer firefighters at the St-Albert fire station in connection with the municipality's policies and directives concerning mandatory training, certification and aptitude tests.

The firefighters concerned by the dismissal were demanding a grandfather clause that recognizes training rights based on seniority. This was the case for Raymond Lavergne, a farmer who had been a volunteer firefighter at the Saint-Albert fire station for over 40 years.

The Nation's fire chief, Mario Villeneuve, maintains that the grandfather clause is not acquired automatically.

When the grandfather clause was put into effect twice, firefighters still had to have a certain minimum of training under their belts to be recognized under this grandfather clause.It wasn't just necessarily having so many years of experience that automatically gave you the right to have access to this grandfather clause," he confides.

Mr. Villeneuve adds that the fire chief at the time felt it necessary not to give the clause to certain firefighters who were probably not properly trained.

The fire chief confirms that the Saint-Albert fire station continues to have a team of firefighters on duty, and that there are currently five volunteer firefighter applications under consideration for this territory.

Source: ici.radio-canada.ca