It is official, there is a new fire services agreement between the Town and the County of Barrhead.
The new Barrhead Regional Fire Services agreement, which goes into effect Jan. 1, 2018, was approved at the Sept. 19 meeting of county council and CAO Debbie Oyarzun said it was a great process to be involved in.
The agreement, approved by the Town Sept. 11, replaces the previous agreement signed in 2012 and reflects changes to the funding model and provides a 50/50 split of the costs for salaries, utilities and miscellaneous expenditures.
“I had the opportunity to work with the town’s administration and while we had differing views and opinions, once we reached a common understanding of what both sides wanted to achieve, we were all able to roll up our sleeves and power through this and I think, produce a pretty good agreement,” she said.
Oyarzun noted the biggest difference between the old agreement and the new one was the absence of billable and unbillable designations.
“The committee went through everything, line by line, and with the removal of these types of designations, it really simplifies the process,” she said, adding it was also important noting the change in the name which reflects the interest of both municipalities involved.
The unit of authority remains the town but Oyarzun said that could change in the future.
“Regardless, the admin support for the fire services, payroll, tracking of training and invoicing, that sort of thing, those are functions provided by the town and we had agreed that roughly 20 per cent of the position is used for that and we, both the town and the county will share the cost 50/50 as well,” she added.
The new agreement, she said, clarifies the roles and responsibilities of both municipalities.
“It includes mechanisms for dealing with possibilities such as what would happen should the agreement be terminated. Anything considered a consumable would be split 50/50 and anything brought to the table prior to the agreement, such as equipment, would remain under the control of the municipality that owns it.
“So nobody loses their assets and anything bought in partnership would be split 50/50 as well,” she said.
On a question regarding rates charged for equipment usage from Coun. Marvin Schatz noted nothing was mentioned in the agreement and wondered when they would be looked at.
Oyarzun said the next step would be part of the budgeting process.
“As far as looking at the per-hour rate, that sort of thing, we want to give this agreement a year to compile data and consider the impact of the rates and then we’ll see where we go from there. We want that year’s worth of data however, before making any decision,” she said.
Coun. Bill Lane offered committee members congratulations on the hard work involved in negotiating the agreement.
“It’s been a long, hard battle and this new agreement was definitely needed,” he said.
Oyarzun said some further work needs to be done, mostly with respect to policies.
“The process for policy review and approval was fairly cumbersome before but the process has been streamlined. We’ll have to review our in-house policies and bylaws because our old ones still reference billables and unbillables and we no longer have those,” she said, noting that is a discussion for a later date.
“The advantage now will be that each municipality will get the same data and will be charged the same rates for the same types of service. Ambulance assists, for example, cost both a lot of money and it will be easier to then come to the table to discuss rates and such when both sides feel the pinch.”
Oyarzun said the main difference in the costs associated with services, with respect to town or county-related call-outs, are reflected in the time commitment.
Coun. Bill Lee said council would be able to take pointers from the new agreement to be used in future agreements as well.
“It is very clear. Everything is laid out perfectly and succinctly,” he said.
