City douses role in fire training centre

By Richard Rolke - Vernon Morning Star - April 09, 2008

Vernon’s departure from a regional fire training program has some politicians fuming. The city has notified the North Okanagan Regional District that it will withdraw from the fire training function Dec. 31. But some directors question why changes to the program couldn’t have been made if the city had concerns. “Why couldn’t they sit down with the other partners and come up with an alternative?” said Eric Foster, Lumby mayor. It’s expected the issue will be discussed during today’s NORD board meeting. With the city pulling out, Foster believes function costs could skyrocket for other North Okanagan communities. “It costs a lot of money to operate but what will it cost if we don’t have it? We have to provide training to our guys,” he said. “We have to figure out what the implications are for us financially.” In 2008, the fire training function had a budget of $252,500.

Each participating jurisdiction supports the fire training centre through tax requisition. According to NORD, Vernon provided $106,331 in 2008, while Lumby paid $3,886. Total tax requisitions were $190,800.Funding also comes from a fee-for-service paid by each fire department that uses the centre. Of the $68,115 paid in 2008, $3,400 came from Vernon and $3,000 from Lumby, according to the regional district. Wayne Lippert, Vernon mayor, defends the decision to withdraw from the function. “We’ve reached a point in our population and size of staff where we can provide the service more cost effectively on our own,” he said in an interview. In a letter to NORD jurisdictions, the city outlines its reasons for withdrawing. “The training schedule is not flexible to meet all the needs of the city particularly with regard to our career staff,” states the letter. “The city has concerns with the amount of service it receives from the fire training centre manager as a result of competing interests from other duties he performs.” The city also states that it pays a disproportionate share of the cost of the function relative to its voting strength on the NORD board. Under the city’s plan, it would rent the centre on Pottery Road for training.“We would hire our own training staff for less money than we are paying now,” said Lippert.Beyond looking after its own needs, Lippert is confident the city could contract the service out to other North Okanagan communities.“We need to look at it from a business sense of how best to provide the service,” he said.