BONNYVILLE – On Thursday night, regional volunteer fire chiefs from across the MD of Bonnyville held an unconventional forum where they asked candidates running for a seat on the MD council in the municipal election to meet and discuss ongoing concerns.
Spearheading the event was Gordon Graves, the volunteer fire chief for the Iron River Fire Department.
Graves told Lakeland This Week that an invitation to the meeting was not extended to members of the public, but was extended to each candidate running in the MD of Bonnyville and to local media outlets.
In response to the meeting organized by the region’s volunteer fire chiefs, Graves said, some candidates opposed the idea of the impromptu meeting all together, while others sent regrets that they would be unable to attend. Roughly 30 people in total attended the forum.
Spread out and seated in the Sandy Rapids Community Hall were fire chiefs from Goodridge’s Station 2 through to Station 8 in Ardmore, along with a dozen MD candidates. The only incumbent councillor from the MD in attendance was Dana Swigart, who stated he wasn’t there as an MD spokesperson but as a former volunteer firefighter himself.
Graves said the idea behind hosting a discussion with candidates came after a meeting between Bonnyville’s fire chiefs and the board of the Bonnyville Regional Fire Authority (BRFA) was canceled in September. A subsequent meeting to replace the previous one had also been canceled leading up to the election.
“There is frustration on the part of the fire chiefs in dealing with how things are working,” Graves said. “We want to know what the heck is going on and if something is being hidden from us.”
To start the forum meeting, the volunteer fire chiefs and the supervisor from the 911 dispatch, Deputy Fire Chief of Station 2 Glen Aylesworth, introduced the services the stations are capable of providing, how many volunteers they have on their rosters, as well as grievances that are beginning to bubble up.
“We're hoping that we can clear the air. We're hoping that there is a good understanding that comes Monday, no matter who wins, so we can move forward without having to reinvent the wheel,” Graves said.
He added, “Here in lies one of the rubs, it used to be that – and I don’t know when, but it got changed sometime within the last four years – we had the chief officers' meetings and we would make motions, but these were really suggestions and they were acted on. Now, the chiefs don’t have any say and to me that’s wrong because I know more about what’s going on in my area than (Dan) Amalia out of Glendon... The minute that that is ignored, then the system starts to break apart and that is the last thing we need to happen."
The biggest points of contention hinged on a lack of communication between the volunteers that make up the MD’s fire departments and the municipal bodies that make decisions on behalf of the association and finance 55 per cent of the BRFA’s annual budget.
Fire chiefs referred to frustrations related to being kept in the dark in regard to ongoing projects.
“What is happening with the Kopala building? Why haven’t we been given updates for when we can get the keys to start moving into the Ardmore and Fort Kent Fire Stations? The people with the answers have chosen not to come to this meeting,” said Cordell Ackert, the station fire chief for Fort Kent.
The Kopala building, located at 46213 Township Rd. 612 and purchased by the MD of Bonnyville, was intended to house Station 5, administration, EMS and 911 dispatch centre by the fall of 2021. Firefighters were also expecting to occupy the new Fort Kent and Ardmore Fire Hall by the end of last year, but due to legal issues with the buildings’ contractor, the move in date remains unknown.
“The (MD council) is discussing all of this in in-camera sessions – some of them are lasting up to three hours – that is not what in-camera sessions are for... The people that it’s directly impacting have no clue what’s happening except for rumors that are trickling out,” said Ackert.
Having a question directed to him about the Kopala building by another member in attendance, Coun. Swigart said, “I have been asking questions in council and haven’t been getting answers either.”
Over the course of the night, the regional fire chiefs agreed that they would like to see genuine collaboration between the volunteers and staff of the BRFA and the municipalities that makeup the board.
Other improvements suggested during the meeting include municipal leaders aiding in promoting volunteerism in the fire department, which has seen a sharp decline since the downturn of the oil and gas sector. Also mentioned, was the designation of specific emergency routes made throughout the MD that are either paved or maintained without the use of calcium chloride, which greatly damages the exterior of emergency vehicles.
The Bonnyville Regional Fire Association
The BRFA was formed in 1996 as a joint agency to provide fire protection services to both the MD and Town of Bonnyville. It is made up of eight fire stations throughout the MD, more than 100 community volunteers and a total of 12 full-time, part-time and casual staff.
The BRFA is administered by a board of directors, which is made up of equal representatives from the two sponsoring municipalities. The remaining four seats on the BRFA board are comprised of two councillors from the Town and two from MD of Bonnyville.
No volunteer firefighters or fire chiefs sit on the board of the BRFA.
During the time the two meetings were canceled, MD Reeve Greg Sawchuk sat as chair of the board and the Town of Bonnyville’s mayor Gene Sobolewski filled the role of vice-chair.
Sobolewski was at the meeting and fielded several questions related to the function of the BRFA and its funding structure.
Sawchuk, the BRFA chair, was not in attendance but did make a social media post earlier in the day to “recognize the men and women who serve their community through providing emergency services.”
