This issue has been on the table at several meetings in recent months as ratepayers continue to challenge firefighting invoices they believe are excessive from the County. Among them is Gary Proskiw who received a $6,670 invoice for a fire call to a yard site he owns on March 18. Six units from the St. Paul fire department were on scene for two hours. Five units were invoiced at $630 per hour and one unit at $185 per hour as per County policy.
It is believed an electrical shortage sparked the fire in an outbuilding at the farm site which then spread through the yard to other buildings. The kicker is Proskiw does not carry insurance on the buildings that were destroyed. He describes them as old sheds with very little monetary value other than the fact they provide storage in the yard.
While the fact they went up in flames is disheartening, it’s not a big loss and they weren’t valuable enough to pay an annual insurance premium for, he told LakelandToday. However, what really irks him is the bill from the County for fire service as he believes it is akin to double-dipping since ratepayers already pay municipal taxes which, among other things, go to fund fire protection.
“All I can see is this is double-billing on the taxpayers because we already pay for that service right up front,” Proskiw said. “Are they going to start charging me now every time a grader goes past my place?”
While County council agreed at its April 13 meeting to reduce Proskiw’s bill by 50 per cent after he appealed it to the County, it’s the principle of the matter that doesn’t sit well with him.
“I shouldn’t have to pay anything. I’ve been a taxpayer for 33 years and this is the first time I’ve needed it. It’s not like this is going above and beyond what the County is already taking tax dollars for.”
At the same meeting that council voted to reduce Proskiw’s bill by half, it also reduced a $14,245 invoice for a residential fire that occurred on Feb. 23 in the county. In that circumstance, the homeowner had insurance coverage for $10,000 of the bill and so council voted to reduce the invoice to $10,000.
The County’s fee structure is based on Alberta Transportation rates - what the government typically pays to a fire department for responding to an accident scene on a provincial highway. On average, property insurance coverage taps out at about $5,000 for firefighting, with the balance not covered and then falling to the responsibility of the landowner. What County council has done in recent months is reduce fire invoices from ratepayers who complain to reflect an amount covered by the ratepayer’s fire insurance. However, councillors have come to realize the fee structure and policy is flawed and needs a rewrite and, as a result, at last Tuesday’s meeting council directed the issue back to the policy committee to tackle.
Acting Community Services Director Dennis Bergheim undertook a survey of other rural municipalities to see how fire calls to their ratepayers are handled. What he quickly learned is the policies are literally all over the map as were the opinions of council members.
“We roll it around like a bad bit of steak in our mouths, but it’s just about a separate committee issue. You’ve got 15 different opinions on this and have 15 different conclusions,” Reeve Steve Upham said after an hour long debate on the issue failed to yield any resolution as to how council should move forward.
“You’ve got people that pay insurance, you’ve got people that don’t pay insurance and then you’ve got people that are in between. So, there’s a lot of discussion that needs to go on on this,” Coun. Kevin Wirsta said. “This is my fourth year here and this is the year I got nailed with all these phone calls and there are some very upset ratepayers that are paying premiums on these fire calls that never intended for it.”
In 2020, the County collected about $66,000 in fees from ratepayers for fire calls. To date this year, $34,000 has been collected.
The County jointly funds the Town of St. Paul and Town of Elk Point fire departments and fully funds the Ashmont and Mallaig departments. The 2021 municipal budget line for fire protection is $883,680. Each year the County allocates $136,000 to reserves for replacement of large fire equipment.
