SHERBROOKE – Municipality of the District of St. Mary’s volunteer fire chiefs have come away from a lengthy meeting with the Department of Emergency Management’s top bureaucrat with a clearer understanding that Nova Scotia’s fire service modernization plans are not aimed at forcing municipalities to take over local volunteer fire departments.
Warden Jim Fuller said the meeting dispelled rumours and concerns that the province wanted municipalities to assume control of fire department equipment and direct local operations. “That’s clearly not happening,” he told The Journal in an interview earlier this month. “I feel great about that.”
The municipality’s fire services advisory committee, which Fuller said includes chiefs from the eight volunteer departments serving St. Mary’s, requested the July 30 meeting in Sherbrooke with Sandra McKenzie, deputy minister of the Nova Scotia Department of Emergency Management.
Questions prepared for the meeting show why local control was an issue. They asked which decisions would remain local and which would become provincial, what role municipalities and fire departments would have, and whether local departments would continue to have meaningful input into operational decisions.
The committee also sought clarification on what a municipal fire service model would mean for ownership of fire halls, apparatus, land, equipment and reserve funds, along with its potential governance, operational and financial effects.
The meeting came as the province moves ahead with a broad modernization of fire protection services. Nova Scotia introduced the Support for Fire Protection Services Act in February as part of a multi-year effort to strengthen governance, training and safety and bring greater consistency to fire services across the province.
Fire protection in Nova Scotia does not follow a single governance model. Some municipalities provide fire protection services directly, while others are served through commissions, incorporated volunteer organizations – such as those serving St. Mary’s – or combinations of those arrangements.
The province has said fire departments and commissions that are not part of a municipal fire service will continue operating as they do. The legislation, however, gives the Minister of Emergency Management authority to oversee all fire protection services and establish province-wide standards for fire services, firefighter training and certification, personal protective equipment, planning, reporting and service delivery. It also provides for fire protection service reviews and a common records management system.
At the July 30 meeting, the committee’s agenda included risk assessments and municipally set service levels, equipment and personal protective equipment standards, training responsibilities, a three-year implementation timetable, funding, regional training, the common Fire Records Management System and the distinction between standard equipment and locally funded “extras.”
Stephen Green, chief of the East River St. Mary’s Volunteer Fire Department, said his department has about 17 emergency responders. While its hall is in Pictou County, about half of its coverage area is in St. Mary’s, straddling the Pictou-Guysborough county line. He said the July 30 session, scheduled for 90 minutes but running for more than two hours, was “a very productive meeting,” noting that he felt the province was looking for ways to help municipalities make the changes “as opposed to trying to force them or push them into any certain direction.”
For Green, training is one area where the modernization effort could provide tangible benefits to smaller rural departments. He said more training is expected to be delivered regionally, reducing the need to send volunteer firefighters away for instruction.
“They’re going to set the standard,” he said, adding that municipalities and departments would then have to meet it. Green said provincial officials also discussed mobile training opportunities and financial assistance to make instruction more accessible locally.
“They’re not saying they’re going to pay the whole shot,” he said, adding that, while questions remain, the timetable and direction are becoming easier to understand.
The province’s implementation plan is expected to roll out over the next three years.
