Although the Sundre Fire Department will as of some time this spring no longer be automatically dispatched to the southern part of Clearwater County when someone calls 911, a mutual aid agreement remains unchanged.
"Sundre is still part of the West Central emergency response protocol," Ron Leaf, Clearwater County's chief administrative officer told the Round Up last week during a phone interview.
"We've got mutual aid agreements with all of our adjoining departments."
The change approved by Clearwater County council before the new year following a recommendation by the district's Regional Fire Committee means that emergency calls for fires will now automatically be routed to the Clearwater Regional Fire Rescue Services rather than the Sundre Fire Department, he said.
However, Sundre fire Chief Marty Butts has recently expressed concerns over the cost-saving measure, which he said could potentially cause delayed response times if his department is no longer automatically dispatched but must instead wait for a request for mutual aid.
In terms of motor vehicle collisions, Leaf said the RCMP generally responds, "and if they make the determination that it warrants dispatching Sundre, notwithstanding the fact Caroline's coming, they have the latitude to be able to make that call."
The administrator said the public should know Clearwater County council did not make its decision based on a random whim without a second thought, but rather that the decision was carefully considered and that residents can rest assured a fire department will always be responding as quickly as possible in the event of an emergency.
"We still need that mutual aid with Sundre, and vice versa."
The county's 2017 operating budget was approved before the new year at about $32.4 million; the 2017 capital budget is roughly $36.7 million. The agreement with Sundre's department to respond automatically to calls in the southern part of the county represented a line item of about $25,000 on the operational budget.
That figure was based on the history of expenses for the fire service agreement with Sundre. For example, in 2014 the county was charged $12,789, in 2015 the expense was $27,775 while in 2016 it dropped to $11,210, the administrator said.
"2016 was the first year we had a budget line for the Sundre service ó the agreement was created in 2015," he said, adding, "The 2016 budget line was based on 2015 spending."
Meanwhile, he said the Clearwater Regional Fire and Rescue Service operating budget is approximately $1.22 million and the service's capital budget associated with the county is about $3.1 million, with roughly $2.4 million allocated to replace two fire halls in Clearwater County.
Clearwater County council's decision also included a several month adoption period to prepare for the change as well as to inform and educate the public, said Leaf.
"We're still in that communication cycle."
