Sinking loonie boosts price for new city fire truck

Posted: Sunday, January 18, 2015 9:11 pm Kelowna Daily Courier:
The free-falling loonie has added a big extra cost to the purchase of a new Kelowna fire truck. City council will be asked Monday to authorize another $106,000 to the previously approved $600,000 purchase for a new truck. Two-thirds of the additional cost is due to the decline of the Canadian dollar against the U.S. dollar, fire chief Jeff Carlisle says. The other $46,000 is because the fire department wants a truck with a larger driveline than was initially approved. The new truck is necessary to replace a 2002 model that is at the end of its service life, Carlisle says. Once the new vehicle arrives, the older one will kept as a back-up fire truck. Money for the additional costs, if approved by council, will come from a fire department reserve account, so there is no direct impact on taxation or the 2015 municipal budget that was approved last Thursday.