Adding money to the proposed 2023 Capital budget to improve fire facilities and the long-term goal to replace the Central Fire Station (330 Vickers Street North).
Council voted unanimously Monday night in favour of the asks from Chief Greg Hankkio, who was looking at the status quo fire station location option as contained in the Thunder Bay Fire
Rescue (TBFR) Strategic Master Fire Plan.
That status quo involved decommissioning the headquarters and building a smaller two-bay station to ensure proper coverage in the area. It also entailed moving the administration staff to the upper floor area of the North Central Station (60 Water Street South).
Hankkio and city staff recommended that the 2032 replacement for the station be identified in the long range capital forecast, but advised against moving fire administration staff. Their suggestion was to include the associated lease costs for the medium term accommodation of those workers in next year’s budget for consideration.
The lengthy discussion involved some councillors questioning why administration is picking and choosing which parts of the consultant’s report to utilize.
“It took quite a bit of political capital, from my memory, to have this report put forward to us,” reflected the Northwood Councillor. “A lot of time and energy and money was spent on this report. My concern now is that we are going to kick this down to 2032, and then the council of 2032 is going to have a big bill to pay if we don’t put money aside and fund these facilities properly.”
The Councillor was unsure how the facility would last another ten years if the annual funding didn’t pick up.
“We are underfunding our facilities,” stressed the Current River councillor. “We are not shooting for Taj Mahal, we are not even shooting for good, the $65,000 keeps the buildings in fair condition.”
City Manager Norm Gale was quick to defend the Chief when some councillors, including the McKellar Ward representative, asked why the city decided to switch gears on some recommendations made by the consultant.
“Like council will reject consultants recommendations, administration does that in turn as well,” mentioned Gale. “The fact of the matter here is that the Chief does not agree with some or many of the recommendations put forward. The Chief has a legislative duty to give you directly (his advice) when it comes to fire protection and fire prevention. (Just because) the Chief doesn’t agree with some of the consultant’s recommendations, no one should draw inference about the quality either way. This is a usual process.”
Council approved implementing the ten-year strategic plan back on December 14, 2020.
