Volunteer firefighters from many of the 26 departments in the Tri-Counties are expressing deep concern over a decision to eliminate local dispatch service.
The Town of Yarmouth says they pay nearly $260,000 a year for dispatchers wages, benefits and overtime.
It says a rural volunteer department pays $1200 a year.
Mayor Pam Mood has said data from outside suppliers indicate prices of under $20,000 annually, so the town is seeking quotes through a Request For Proposals.
Firefighters from the region gathered at Par-en-Bas school in Tusket Wednesday night.
The meeting was called by the Yarmouth County Mutual Aid Association.
Lake Vaughan Fire Chief George Emin spoke about the figures provided by the town.
“I’m going to use Pam Mood’s words, that the funding system is broken. The last two years, we’ve responded to Yarmouth about ten times. Each one of those calls was an average of three to four hours. Lands and forests (Dept. of Natural Resources) rates pay us $150 an hour per truck, and $12 an hour per person. Our last call when we went to Town Point (wharf and boat fire), we had two trucks there, four hours, that’s $1200. We had 11 personnel at $12 an hour, that’s $528. If we charged the town, it would have been $1728 dollars, plus there were three other departments there. That call would have cost the Town of Yarmouth $7000. That call cost the Town of Yarmouth zero. There’s no way the town can say that we are not contributing. We save the Town of Yarmouth, through mutual aid, about $150,000 a year.”
Jason Saulnier is vice-president and a volunteer with the Eel Brook and District Fire Department.
He says they rely on the local knowledge of the four dispatchers.
“Can we have paging and dispatching from other areas, yes we can. Are we going to get the level of service that we get from Yarmouth? No we won’t. They’ve been behind us for many years now and they support us tremendously and I don’t feel we will get the support from another source.”
The firefighters have a new ally: the Fire Service Association of Nova Scotia.
Daniel Gaudet, chief of the St. Bernard Fire Department was one of the many firefighters in attendance last night, and he is also first vice president of the association.
He says the association passed a motion, unanimously, that a resolution be drafted and delivered to the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities and the Minister of Municipal Affairs.
Gaudet says it requests prompt action on the rationalization of fire dispatch service in the province.
“With the issue that’s going on in Yarmouth now, and there are other issues across the province that are not there yet but could go the same direction as what’s going on here, so we need to review what we have for dispatch centres in the province, and what we can do to prevent something like this from happening again.”
Shelburne fire chief Darrelll Locke says the Yarmouth dispatchers are important to Shelburne firefighters and that the same level of service would be lost if the Town of Yarmouth outsources the service.
The Port Maitland Fire Chief told the meeting the local service is vital and must be maintained.
One Yarmouth dispatcher said “this is not about my job or our jobs, this is about your safety.”
There were municipal councillors present at the meeting from the municipalities of Argyle and Yarmouth.
There was only one councillor from the Town of Yarmouth, Sandy Dennis.
Municipality of Yarmouth Warden Leland Anthony said he got some good information from last night’s meeting but said he doesn’t know yet what the answer is to resolve the situation.
Local fire associations will be meeting with the various municipal units to seek a resolution.
Meanwhile, the current collective agreement negotiations between the town and the Yarmouth Firefighters Association, Local 2094 of the International Association of Fire Fighters are on hold.
President Lynn Seeley, the local president says they’ve been postponed until the town rescinds the plans to layoff the dispatchers, as the union local has asked.
“The financial implications from the town and for the employees here is a key issue but the main issue is our life safety and for those outside the town that we serve.”
Seeley says there could be labour action if this isn’t soon resolved.
“Most certainly, our press release was just the first step. We are still waiting for legal advice on how to proceed. We have a no strike-no lock out clause in our agreement, which in my mind is ideal. No one here would ever put anyone’s lives at risk.”
Some firefighters plan to attend the next town council meeting on Thursday, May 17.
The Yarmouth County Mutual Aid Association meets the same night.
