ATHABASCA — Athabasca County councillors gave final approval to a new Fire Services bylaw that was in front of councillors for the first time at a regular sitting in November after taking time to review and consider the content, ensure councillor comprehension, and allow time for ratepayer review.
During the Dec 12. regular meeting, county councillors voted 8-1 — Coun. Gary Cromwell was opposed — to pass second and third readings of the revised fire services bylaw, following an 8-0 vote to pass first reading Nov. 30, for which Cromwell was absent.
“I don’t see a lot of changes in here based on our first discussion,” said Cromwell. “I am still unhappy with how this bylaw reads and I cannot support it.”
One minor amendment was passed with a unanimous vote before second and third readings were given. An incomplete sentence, initially included to provide further clarification around false alarms in section 13 of the bylaw, was identified by Regional Fire Chief Travis Shalapay. The sentence was removed before the bylaw was officially adopted, avoiding an additional three readings to rectify the error.
Nov. 30 discussion
The revision of the bylaw came as a third-party recommendation after Transitional Solutions Inc. (TSI), a business management consultant based out of Edmonton, conducted a Fire Services review. According to the discussion report by Shalapay in the Nov. 21 committee of the whole agenda, the independent review was commissioned by council.
TSI presented the review, along with a 46-page Fire Services Master Plan, to county council June 29, when both documents were approved unanimously without discussion. The review of the fire services bylaw was a recommendation within the master plan, and county staff completed a full revision in the subsequent months.
Councillors opted to take their time during the official approval process, following the five months of administrative assessment.
“I would propose to you that we handle a bylaw like (the fire services bylaw) by only doing a single reading at this meeting, and then give it time to come back to another reading. Given the length of the bylaw, I think it benefits council to have the opportunity to read it, rest, and read it again,” said county Reeve Brian Hall during the Nov. 30 meeting.
“With other long bylaws we’ve recently reviewed through committee of the whole, even after six months of looking at them we still were making adjustments, even to the last meeting,” added Hall.
Coun. Tracy Holland asked how comfortable staff would be delegating duties, after the committee of the whole meeting on Nov. 21 resulted in the addition of an amendment that deals with the delegation of power.
“I was just wondering how comfortable that that would be for the fire chief to delegate duties, that person do something horribly wrong, and the fire chief still being responsible,” asked Holland.
“It’s the tiering of delegation,” responded Shalapay. “Because we are in a fluid state with the organization, things moving around, there may be some responsibilities that have to be delegated (for) short term, long term.”
“As head of the fire services, obviously the buck stops with me in terms of things going right or wrong within the organization,” added Shalapay.
Following councillor suggestions made during the November committee of the whole meeting, county admin made some minor amendments to the bylaw, including a more robust definition of “exploding targets,” a section on the use of highway flares, personal distress signals, and wildlife scaring devices, and a clause rescinding the previous fire services and fireworks bylaws.
Although the fire services review was initiated by councillors in 2022, the Fire Services Master Plan and changes to the bylaw come after more than 2,211,632 hectares were burned by 1,129 wildfires in Alberta this year.
“I don’t have a crystal for what the future will bring,” said Hall. “I know going forward, the expectation is we’re going to be faced with more wildland fires. It’s important that we have a clear and clearly understood level of service across all departments."
“It matters for council so that we can work with the regional chief and the Fire Services Master Plan to ensure the right equipment is in the right places, and that the mutual aid agreements are in place, and that all departments are functioning in a way they can work together,” said Hall.
