Kelowna Fire Department has secured contract to provide fire dispatch for the RDOS

Photo: Castanet/file

The Kelowna Fire Department will continue to provide fire dispatch services to the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen for at least the next five years.

The KFD successfully outbid other proponents for the contract, which also allows for a five-year renewal.

Kelowna began providing dispatch services to the RDOS in 2011, when it was the lowest of four bids at the time.

The original five-year contract was valued at $1.075 million over the five year period.

It also included a five-year renewal.

The new contract, approved recently, is nearly double the original, coming in at $2.053 million.

Deputy Kelowna Fire Chief Sandra Follack told Kelowna council Monday the first year of the contract is $134,000 more than the final year of the current contract, bringing it more in line with contracts for other customers.

The new contract kicks in Jan. 1, and runs through Dec. 31, 2026.

Follack says revenues from the contract will be invested back into dispatch improvements as well as the department's reserve fund.

Along with this contract, the Kelowna Fire Department also provides dispatch services for the Central Okanagan, East Kootenay, Central Kootenay, Kootenay-Boundary and Okanagan-Similkameen regional districts, City of Vernon and Okanagan Indian Band.

Those contract collectively bring in close to $1 million a year.