Regional fire questioned

Photo: Contributed

Regional district director Wayne Carson

A regional director and former head of the North Westside Fire Department is questioning the motives of the Regional District of Central Okanagan.

Wayne Carson, director for Okanagan West, made the comments after Joe Rich fire chief Curtis Nyuli was fired and Ellison chief Kurt Szalla retired.

Carson, who himself stepped down as chief of the North Westside department in 2013, said he believes the regional district is trying to regionalize the four paid-on-call fire departments within its umbrella.

These include Joe Rich and Ellison east of Kelowna, and North Westside and Wilson's Landing on the west side of Okanagan Lake.

Carson said the regional district has stated the change in Joe Rich amounted to a change in direction.

"My understanding, and I'm just a new guy, but my understanding is a change of direction and policy are the authority of the elected officials. Neither director Hanson (Okanagan East) nor I are in favour of any change in direction or policies or anything that is being developed and pushed forward here that regionalizes the fire departments," said Carson.

"We believe they are community fire departments, and they need to be operated that way for the best benefit of the people they serve. Fire departments play a huge role in the communities. I know there are people in my community who have stated quite bluntly if it wasn't for the medical first responder program the fire department did, they would have moved from the community years ago."

Carson said a regional fire service is a bad idea, one he advised against the entire time he was with the department.

He said there wasn't much of a push in that direction until recently.

"At the end of the day, when you roll from a community fire department to a regional fire department, your ability to recruit and retain are heavily stressed," said Carson.

"It's pretty easy to go out there and get people to serve their community and neighbours, but when it turns out to be a regional thing, then it's more about money, and we're not going to get a lot of people coming forward."

He added if membership at any of the fire halls slips below 15, they would lose certification.

"At that point in time, the regional district would have to make some sort of a decision because of the liability involved. I believe they would have no choice but to put career guys in those halls and contract out the service," said Carson.

"I don't know if that is the end game here, but I believe that will be the consequence of the direction they are going. If you lose those members and you are no longer able to attract new members to maintain that level of 15 men, liability issues crop up."

Carson believes a regional service would also cost more, due in part to the addition of another layer of management.

"The regional district now has a fire services manager at the office, so that's $100,000 there that isn't putting a fire truck in front of a house in the electoral areas, and that's my main concern.

"Our job is to respond to the communities."

According to the Regional District communications director Bruce Smith the fire and inspection services manager is responsible for more than just fire departments.  

Smith said he's also responsible for building permits, building inspections, business licensing and bylaw enforcement related to building/zoning matters and his salary is split between the two service functions.