OLDS - Fire departments in the area will face extra challenges in the future as a result of the UPC government’s decision to eliminate a $500,000 firefighting grant, said Olds Fire Department fire Chief Justin Andrew.
“We have applied for that grant in the past,” said Andrew. “It does have an impact on us. Removing that grant will take dollars out of our hands collectively to apply towards certified training.
“How the grant would work is that regionally all the fire departments in Mountain View County would collaboratively apply for the grant.”
The training that it was to go towards was funded for all municipalities in our region together, he said.
“(The grant) would reduce the need for the tax income that everyone pays towards fire suppression to get a high enough level of training within the various departments.”
Andrew said the fire departments in Mountain View County received about $13,000 from the grant for regional training last year and have been awarded around $25,000 for the 2020-21 training calendar.
“Next year with the elimination of that grant none of that funding is available to us,” he said. “They did extend the grant for one more season but next season it’s gone.”
Andrew said the training they applied for and received allows the firefighters in the region to be certified.
“That in part goes with that we have an accredited fire training facility in Olds,” he said. “The impact long term is that when we take on new members we will have to pay for that certification out of our budgets.”
Andrew said the fire departments are all in pretty good shape now since they’ve been using the provincial grant for the last couple of years.
“Right now we’re in a pretty good position because we’ve utilized this grant for the last two years and we have increased the capacity and the certification level substantially,” he said. “It’ll be on the onus of each municipality to fund their department with their training.”
Andrew said they have always had money for training but it is limited by budget on how much they can do and to what level.
“We’ve been very fortunate that the municipalities in Mountain View County have viewed firefighter training and safety as a high priority,” he said. “So we’re certainly not feeling the effects like some smaller municipalities would with the elimination.”
Andrew said what it will do is make fire departments have to potentially look at other funding models such as sponsorships, industry, or fundraising initiatives.
“Because it’s part of the core function of each fire department, this is one of the high level things our budget dollars go towards,” he said. “We don’t have a choice to not train our people because we fall under the occupational health and safety legislation. Our people are workers and have to be adequately trained to perform their job function.”
Andrew said that although there is no organized “regional” fire department all the departments do work together from time to time.
“Essentially all the fire departments are autonomous and function under their own town,” he said. “We do collaboratively meet and have regional discussions and work together. That’s an informal gathering of fire chiefs on a monthly basis.”
Andrew said they’ve done that for years.
“We’ve always shared training resources and opportunities,” he said. “That’s going to continue because that’s the only model that will see prosperous futures for all of us.”
Timothy Gerwing, spokesperson for Kaycee Madu, minister of Municipal Affairs, explained the cuts to the firefighter training grants by saying that the delivery of fire services is a muncipal responsibility, meaning fire departments and their training budgets are funded by local governments.
"Given this, we have dissolved a small training grant that was developed in better economic times," said Gerwing. "We value the tremendous work firefighters do and continue to work with municipalities across the province to ensure public safety is protected."
He said that municipalities are responsible for funding and training their local firefighters, so the loss of this grant shouldn’t have much of an impact on training or services.
