from Manager of Emergency Services report to PRRD CoW

Thursday the PRRD Committee of the Whole meets, and on its agenda is our fire department's proposed budget.

The latest proposal is on page 211 at 
https://powellriverregionaldistrict.civicweb.net/filepro/documents/57438...

On page 207 is Ryan Thom's four page report.  Here are some items from it:
 

"The Electoral Area‘E’ Emergency Dispatch Advisory Committee (E-DAC) Final Report recommended $35,000 in communications investments. While staff do not recommend proceeding with the overall recommendations of the E-DAC report, there is agreement that pagers, radios, and supporting communications equipment is necessary.

"The $26,306 reserve contribution is the maximum amount available within the current requisition limit. While there is still no capital asset replacement plan for the LIVFD, it is reasonable to expect that the service should be  prepared for future capital upgrades or replacements. This reserve contribution is also consistent with Board’s Asset  management Policy 3.14. The main fre hall is an ageing structure with numerous shortcomings. The LIVFD has the oldest apparatus fleet of all PRRD fire services."
 

... "The LIVFD must also invest in SCBA equipment in order to comply with its Worksafe BC obligations. The LIVFD has no immediate plan to implement any of these necessary investments but they should be planned for, and $26,306 added to the $93,354 currently in reserves will not suffice to address all these issues.

"The LIVFD service is struggling in many aspects to meet its service obligations. The LIVFD has not developed or implemented a firefighter training plan. As per the Office of the Fire Commissioner’s (OFC) requirements the training plan should have been in place by June, 2016. The OFC and Worksafe BC also require accurate training and incident records for all personnel, but, as reported in the Firefighter Training Status and Progress staff report to the Committee of the Whole on February 9, 2017, these legal obligations are not being met by the LIVFD. The LIVFD is not meeting the minimum Worksafe BC requirements for a fire department Occupational Health & Safety Committee. Following public opposition to plans for washing facilities in the 2016 budget the LIVFD OH&S Committee was tasked with recommending a resolution, but to date no recommendation has come forward."
 

"... the 1st Vice-President of the Fire Chiefs Association of British Columbia gave a presentation on Rural Fire Service Updates attached as Appendix B. Fire Chief Jolley stressed the importance and the obligation of the Board (Authority Having Jurisdiction) to enforce compliance with the Office of the Fire Commissioner’s Playbook, determine level of operations by bylaw, documentation and record keeping of training, compliance with WorkSafeBC, and that no jurisdiction is exempt; not even societies or associations. Regretfully, I must report that the Lasqueti Island Volunteer Fire Department is falling far behind in this regard and is putting the Regional District and Board at great risk."
 

PUBLIC AND/OR STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT

None.

"Moving forward toward compliance will require both a local desire to work for these improvements as well as investment by the service area taxpayers to support the necessary training and equipment to run an effective and safe fire service. If these two elements do not take place then the Board should be prepared to act on its resolution to support the recommendations of the Recruitment and Retention Review, and in particular:

"Establish a reasonable, relatively aggressive and monitored timeline to reach competency requirements by December 3], 2018. If at that time the departments do not show that this service level requirements are realistically achievable then staff will provide a report to the Board recommending the Board rescind the respective bylaws and terminating these local services."