The Citizen, 2010-03-25, Page 7THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 2010. PAGE 7.THE EDITOR,
North Huron council, with
concurrence of all members, has
expressed concern about the
negative image your recent editorial
conveys about changes taking place
in our fire service arrangements. The
article we refer to is titled “Put
people ahead of map lines” from the
March 11 issue of The Citizen.
The ultimate responsibility and
accountability for fire protection
services rests with each
municipality. In early 2008, North
Huron began an in-depth review to
determine whether we were meeting
the minimum requirements
according to provincial legislation.
We found that we were not. We
discovered that many changes would
be required in order for us, as a
municipality, to bring our services
into at least minimum Standards of
Compliance with all applicable
legislation.
Responsibility for our fire
protection had been delegated for
many years to the Wingham and
Area Fire Board and the Blyth and
Area Fire Board. The hallmark of
these boards was the spirit of co-
operation, that they engendered
among neighbouring communities.
However the process of joint
decision-making among
municipalities to support that co-
operation was, in our view, a
prohibiting barrier that would make
it impossible to make the necessary
changes to our fire services in a
reasonable length of time. We had no
choice but to announce to our
partners in September 2008 that we
were not going to extend our
membership in the Blyth and the
Wingham area boards when the
agreements ended December 31,
2009.
Early in 2009, in conjunction with
the Ontario Fire Marshal’s office, we
started the work of constructing a
fire department that would have
clear rules, responsibilities, and
chain of command. To lead this
process, we hired a new Chief in
June to help plan for the launch of a
new fire department on January 1,
2010 when the fire area boards
ceased to exist.
In our instructions to our new
Chief, we stressed the need to plan
for service to all our neighbours who
had been receiving service from our
fire stations. We defined our
response areas as half way to the
next fire station to achieve optimal
response times.
Chief Black reviewed all relevant
provincial legislation and identified
all of the areas in which North
Huron fire services were not
compliant. The gaps were numerous
and many were extremely serious.
Here is a list of some of the needs
identified:
• More training required in order
to meet at least the minimum
Ontario requirements – in new areas
not previously provided, update of
training to meet new requirements,
refresher training that is required by
regulation, and full documentation
of training offered, content, and
participation.
• Scheduled replacement of all
types of critical equipment,
machinery, clothing, masks, etc.
according to Ontario regulations
• Scheduled maintenance of
equipment according to Ontario
regulations.
• Meticulous record keeping of all
maintenance, replacement, and
procedures to assure ourselves that
we are achieving our standards, and
in order to stand prepared for
external audits to prove state of
preparedness in case of incident
investigations.
Naturally, the cost of providing
this level of fire service is higher
than we were experiencing under the
Fire Board arrangement. We as a
council, though initially shocked by
the new numbers, were unanimous
in agreement that the new standards
are exactly what we must adopt in
order to be confident that we are
providing the people of North Huron
with the level of safety and security
they deserve. We also determined
that we needed to achieve this
level of service as quickly as
possible.
North Huron decided to create its
own independent fire service. We
don’t apologize for wanting our
service to be “united”. Unity within
North Huron operations is essential
to the development of a well-run fire
department. We further decided that
the most effective arrangement was
to create a single fire department
with two stations, rather than two
separate fire departments with a top
layer of administration to co-
ordinate things.
Your editorial described our focus
as inward-looking. Of course it was!
We were moving to a level of fire
service that our municipality
requires. We were not limiting our
goal to the level to which our
neighbours might agree. The status
quo is not, in our view, acceptable
today.
Your characterization of North
Huron’s position contains some
serious misconceptions. We have not
issued any bills to these neighbours
under our new arrangement. The fire
services of the past years will
continue to be provided as long as
we are in negotiation with our
neighbours. We have negotiated and
signed an agreement with Morris-
Turnberry. We are in negotiation
with Central Huron and Ashfield-
Colborne-Wawanosh at the present
time. We will not put anyone at risk
in our service area and have
continued our traditional service
without interruption.
In these negotiations, we do not
say “This is the price; take it or leave
it!” We open the whole financial
business case to our neighbours so
that they know exactly what North
Huron’s capital and operating costs
are and what the cost of our service
to them will be, based on the
traditional percentages established
under the former arrangements.
They are not buying equipment for
us. They are not subsidizing North
Huron’s fire department.
We negotiate with our neighbours
in good faith in an effort to meet
their needs. The price we place on
these contracts reflects our actual
costs. Our contracting partners know
exactly what their costs will be
throughout the life of the contract.
There will be no fee for service costs
added on as in the past. Their costs
will cover their usage of capital
equipment, but North Huron will
buy, operate, and maintain those
capital items. The neighbours will
not experience the budgetary spikes
that used to occur in those years
when the Board needed to purchase
a new fire truck or other expensive
equipment.
We are as flexible as possible, but
cannot agree to offer to other
municipalities a sub-standard level
of service, nor can we offer services
below our cost. We also cannot
make agreements that prejudice
agreements we have already
concluded with other partners. As
mentioned above, each municipality
is responsible and accountable for
providing fire services within its
own boundaries.
Boundaries are not the problem in
the case of fire services. Mostly they
are necessary and beneficial. North
Huron is fully prepared to serve its
surrounding neighbours where
required.
Reeve Neil Vincent, Deputy Reeve
Murray Scott, Councillors Alma
Conn, James Campbell, Archie
McGowan, David Riach, Brock
Vodden.
Continued from page 4
In my immediate area there are no
longer abattoirs in Dungannon,
Ripley and Brussels. The
government says it’s necessary for
food safety, but I have lived in Huron
County for 36 years and I have never
heard of any meat being recalled
from any of them. It has always been
from the large industrial plants,
running 24 hours a day, seven days a
week, where there are regular tainted
meat issues and recalls of millions of
pounds of meat.
The government needs to change
their policy of “one size fits all”
requirements for abattoirs. Small
abattoirs are different. Their
processing scenarios are different,
the risk is much smaller, and
regulations need to reflect that. I am
highly suspicious that this policy is
supported by the large packing
plants because they know it’s putting
the small ones out of business – it’s
all about market access and who’s
going to control the market in the
future.
I want to preserve the meat
processing capacity in our local
communities for food access and
choice. We need to preserve small
meat processing plants for food
security here in Ontario...and there
sure won’t be “Homegrown Ontario”
meats very much longer at this rate !
A Community Forum with a panel
on this topic is being held Thursday
evening, March 25, at 7:30 pm at the
Knights of Columbus Hall in
Wingham. All eaters are welcome.
Fran McQuail, Lucknow, ON
North Huron fires back on coverage issue
Thursday, April 1
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* Spin the wheel to get a discount on parts
* Pancake lunch served 11 am - 1 pm
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Customer Appreciation Day
and Open House
McGavin’s is 74 years young
and we want to show our gratitude
to those who have helped us along the way.
519-887-6365 Walton 1-877-887-6365
www.mcgavinequip.com
McGavin
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