RM fire hall under construction as opponents call it unnecessary

Golden shovels in hand, the local MLA, reeve, fire chief and construction leader officially opened construction on the new fire hall for the RM of Edenwold on Friday, even as opposition to the project brewed in the area.

Reeve Mitch Huber said the new Emerald Park Fire Hall is a reaction to service and will provide a better response time and help cover the area better.

“We’ve got a small population over a vast area, like we’re not as high a density as the cities are,” said Huber.

The hall, once it’s built in about six months, will at first be run as a satellite hall to Pilot Butte, with its chief in charge.

“We aim to grow into a family, to complement each other. That’s the goal here, to complement other communities as well as initial response times to our jurisdiction,” explained Huber.

However, there are those in the area who are opposed to the new hall being built — in particular, White City’s town council.

Many area leaders were at the new hall’s groundbreaking, but not White City officials. An invitation was sent, but according to a letter the council sent back, members didn’t attend because they don’t support construction of the hall.

“I think there’s better ways to spend money in the community than a redundant fire hall less than four kilometres from one that’s already there,” White City Mayor Brian Fergusson said in an interview.

The new hall is, indeed, going to be about four kilometres away from White City’s. But Huber insisted that four kilometres is a big deal, and the new hall will be able to improve response times.

“That initial response time is critical. We figure this will put us at an advantage,” said Huber.

Fergusson disputes that, saying White City’s response time for the first nine months of the year was less than 6.5 minutes in town and less than 8.5 minutes for the RM.

Huber also talked about developments to the east and west of where the fire hall is going, directly across from the RM office.

“If we don’t build a hall here, with the population demands that are upon us, we’ll have to increase space in remodelling other fire halls,” said Huber.

In a report last year about the possibility of a new fire hall, the RM predicted that, with expected growth, it will become a challenge for White City’s hall to keep up adequate service levels for the Emerald Park area.

Fergusson and others in the community believe the cost for the new hall isn’t worth it. Originally, the construction cost had been pegged at $1.1 million but has since jumped to $1.6 million.

“I think we’ve done a good job of addressing it and we look forward to coming in on budget now,” said Huber.

The reeve still feels they’re going to get value for what they’re doing.

The RM did get some money from other levels of government, including MEEP funding from the province. Huber said the lion’s share of the cost is being borne by past present, and future development fees and the RM also is looking at future corporate sponsorship.

He’s confident the hall will have a minimal effect on the common rate payer.

But those like Fergusson still don’t think it’s a good use of money.

“If they’ve got a few million dollars burning a hole in their pocket, there’s lots of other areas that they could spend that money that would be of greater value to the community than a duplication of fire services,” said Fergusson.

The mayor listed off a recreation complex in the town that needs funding, or some in the community have suggested a pool.

The new hall wouldn’t eliminate the need for contracts with town fire services. Those would continue, just to an eventually reduced extent, according to the RM’s 2020 report.

That report said that, between 2019 and 2030, it would be about $1 million more expensive to build a new fire hall, which does not include the $500,000 increase in construction costs. However, the report said that by 2040, that would switch and having the new fire hall would be about $1.5 million cheaper, again, not including the construction cost increase.

Fergusson pointed out that, once the hall is built, there will be four fire halls for fewer than 30,000 people.

The other concern Fergusson has is over volunteers. The fire halls in the area, with the exception of those in Regina, are all run with volunteer firefighters, and Fergusson is worried that the volunteer pool isn’t deep enough to support another hall.

Fergusson gave an example that last week, there was a fire and only six of White City’s pool of 21 firefighters could make it.

“So if you dilute that pool any further, the question is do you get yourself in a situation where the fire department can’t even respond because they can’t meet the minimum number required to safely respond?” said Fergusson.

Huber didn’t have any concerns about the volunteers who will be recruited for the new hall. He said the emphasis will be on new members.

“We’re not going to steal anybody from anywhere,” said Huber.

The new fire hall already has eight volunteers on the books who are being trained with Pilot Butte’s department. Kevin Dell, Pilot Butte and now Emerald Park’s fire chief, said he’s looking to have another four by the end of the year, and 20 to 22 by the time the hall opens.

One of the reasons for the RM to have its own fire hall, according to the report, was that it was paying a lot for fire services from towns like White City, but wasn’t able to have a say in decisions or how the money was spent.

“As a local government, the RM expects to have a say in how the needs of our communities are met and how tax dollars are being spent, even when the service is provided by an external agency,” read the report.

The report said, at the time of its writing, White City hadn’t given any opportunities to participate in managing the fire department.

In the letter recently sent to the RM after members were invited to the hall groundbreaking, town council said it would be “open to discussing how we can provide cost-effective and equitable cost of service provisions, and how both the Town and RM could participate in a regional, co-ordinated approach to fire services in the area.”

However, Fergusson also compared the situation to a dentist’s office, saying that even though you’re purchasing services from it, you wouldn’t expect to have a say in how the dentist’s office is run.

Fergusson also pointed out the RM may pay a lot for White City’s services, but 70 per cent of the calls its fire department went out on so far this year were in the RM.

When asked about the town council’s openness to co-operation, Huber said they’re willing to work with jurisdictions and still need to, but they have other ratepayers.

“We try to do the best we can balancing the economics with the delivery of services,” said Huber.

Fergusson said co-operation between White City and the RM has been deteriorating for years, but being that he only took office last fall, he couldn’t say why it started.

White City is currently in the midst of a plan to annex land from the RM, which the RM is trying to fight.

With the opposition to the fire hall, Huber said the plans have been in the works for more than 10 years. He pointed out the RM had open houses last summer and fall and advertised the projects.

“There was some negativity there but there was more positive than negative, so that’s the way council went,” said Huber.