Central Frontenac to look at full-time fire chief option

Jeff Green | Sep 15, 2016

by Jeff Green

Among the recommendations in phase 1 of an operational review of fire and emergency services in Central Frontenac Township is the creation of a full-time fire chief position.

Terry Gervais, formerly of the Napanee Fire Department, made 11 recommendations in the report he delivered to a regular meeting of Central Frontenac Council on Tuesday afternoon (September 13).

Of those, a number dealt with health and safety measures, and others with the way the township makes incident reports to the Province of Ontario for every call that the department goes out on.

The final section of the report is about the position of fire chief, whether to maintain the status quo, with Fire Chief Bill Young and Deputy Fire Chief Art Cowdy both putting in 16 hours, or two days a week; to increase Young's hours to a larger part-time position; or in the words of the report, to “hire a full-time chief.”

Gervais said that the status quo option is not advisable because the township is already falling behind in its legislative reporting and other requirements.

Option 2, to increase the hours, would not be sufficient, in Gervais' view, partly because, as he said, “The fire chief already works more than 16 hours so that option is already in place and it is not enough. It is my recommendation that the township hire a full-time person.”

For comparative purposes, he looked at neighboring townships and found that of nine he looked at, six have full-time fire chiefs; one shares a full-time chief, and only two have part-time chiefs, one of those being Central Frontenac. In Frontenac County, not only does the largest township, South Frontenac, have a full-time chief, but North Frontenac, with half the full-time population of Central Frontenac, also has a full-time chief.

Mayor Frances Smith thanked Gervais for his report and said that council will look at the recommendations in the coming weeks or months.

Although the report called for a new position to be created, it was silent on how that position should be filled, not saying if the job should be offered to Young or filled through an open hiring process.