City Council defers discussion on proposed Fire Service Level change; takes report review to workshop and out of public spotlight

A report from Fire Chief Dave McKenzie on proposed Service Level changes
will be moved to committee for further study by Council members.

After more than four years in their seats at Prince Rupert City Council, Mayor Lee Brain and the four incumbent council members still haven't apparently figured out a key element of the duties.

That the purpose of a City Council session is to discuss some of the most important issues of the day in the public view.

Monday night delivered another example of how this current Council prefers to do much of its work in committees, workshops, or closed sessions, with a Report from the Fire Chief that had proposed a change to the city's level of fire service protection now destined for a future Council workshop session.

A gathering that will be out of the view of the residents who will be most impacted by the change.

The shift to the workshop approach came when Councillor Barry Cunningham asked for some additional time to review the report to fully understand the impact that it will have on the community, calling for Council to return to the issue at some future date.

"I would like to table this, until I get a better understanding of the impact that it's going to have ... to a future meeting or a workshop, I've done a little bit of research on it and I'm not 100 percent happy with the answers we've got so far, so I want to get a little more information on it before I can make a decision on it" -- Councillor Barry Cunningham on the nature of a Report on Fire Service level changes for Prince Rupert

Mayor Lee Brain was quick to take the committee approach, putting the Report on the shelf until that committee session takes place, though no indication was given on Monday night as to when that may happen.

As we outlined on Monday, the Report from Fire Chief Dave McKenzie reviewed some of the challenges that the city faces when it comes to staffing fire calls and came with a recommendation that the city change its bylaw to shift the focus from Full Service to that of an Exterior Fire Service, which would only enter a structure should the proper number of fire service members be available.

Amending our level of service allows us as a Department to still fire fight from the exterior of structure fires, and continue to meet one of the levels of service required by the Playbook. 

In addition, we can still make entry to the structure if we have the additional resources on scene to do the job as per WorkSafe BC requirements, however this will no longer be the anticipated or mandated level of service.

The full report from the Fire Chief for City Council can be reviewed here.

It makes for a document that every resident of the city should take some time to review, to gain a better understanding of the challenges that the City's Fire Department has when it comes to service levels.

What's puzzling about the way the Fire Report was handled on Monday is from what turned out to be another in a growing list of very short council meetings (this one but a seventeen minute session), other than Councillor Cunningham, the remaining Council members did not take some time on the evening to offer up some of their initial thoughts on the topic.

Something that would have at least given residents come kind of better understanding of what the report was calling for, and where the Council membership stood on the topic.

The other thing that stood out is, considering the Agenda is published in advance and council members had ample opportunity to review the document; not inviting the Fire Chief to attend the meeting to explain the findings to the public seems like another missed opportunity for information sharing.

Considering the somewhat important nature of the proposed change in service, a full briefing for the public would seem to be sensible thing to provide for, at least if you're a council looking to be an informative and transparent civic body.

As for the plan to move it to the committee stage, if you're a glass half full kind of person, you may be thinking that at least they're going to discuss the report, rather than just give it a rubber stamp and move on to the next item.

If you have a glass half empty view of things however, the takeaway on the night is that once again, City Council prefers to do much of its work behind closed doors and out of the view of the public that elected it.

By shifting it to the committee process, residents will really have no idea as to what each of their elected officials have to say about the issue, nor what options that they may be considering if the city is to keep a Full Service Fire Department model.

You can review Council's handling of the Fire Report from the City Council video archive starting at the 14:45 minute mark.  

Watch carefully though, the conversation passes by in less than forty seconds.



It's been a rough start for City Council this 2019, first the public had questions on the nature of the handling of the recent Boil Water Notice and whether we should, or should not drink the water that comes out of our taps.

On that issue, Council deflected some of the public heat by sending that overview to a staff report process, a report yet to be delivered to the public.

The topic of compensation levels for council members also hasn't gained much of a review in public session, that issue deferred from the fall, now destined for another committee with work to take place sometime over the next few months.

February now brings questions as to what residents might reasonably expect when it comes to Fire Protection in the community and that's now going to an out of the public view and into a workshop process.

All are items that probably deserve much more of a public presentation inside of a Regular City Council meeting, where answers and comments from Council members appear on a public record and all the facts are provided for public review.

For now, residents have no option but to wait for the results from reports, workshops and committees and maybe at some point, a short announcement in passing at some brief public Council session in the future.

For more items of note related to Monday's Council session see our Timeline feature here.

A wider overview of City Council Discussion themes can be explored from our Council Archive here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.