Council given safety audit update

DIDSBURY -  The Didsbury Fire Department (DFD) safety audit is underway and the results are expected before Sept. 25, Deron Reimer, manager of protective services for the Town of Didsbury, told council.

"We did hire a safety audit company, they're called Edelweiss Safety Solutions, to do our audit for the fire department," Reimer said. "We did meet (with the auditor) on Sept. 4, Harold (Northcott, Didsbury CAO), Craig (Martin, DFD fire chief) and myself."

The auditor from Edelweiss asked for an extensive list of documents including the health and safety policy of the town, job descriptions, policy and procedure manuals, training records and incident reports, he said.

"We had a couple of days we spent looking for information and making sure we had it," he said. "We tried to gather everything we had for him and we thought we did a pretty good job.  He did tell us he would have the report back before the next council meeting (Sept. 25) so we can report the findings."

Didsbury mayor Rhonda Hunter asked Reimer if the letters of concern from the firefighters were given to the auditors.

"No, we did not," replied Reimer. "This is the safety side of it, not about the complaint side of it. This is just dealing with the safety aspect of the fire hall."

Reimer did go on to say that some of the safety concerns brought up by the firefighters in their letters would have appeared in the incident reports.

Hunter told the Gazette she hopes that the safety concerns from the firefighters are addressed by the audit.

"Deron Reimer did respond that the auditor was provided with all the information he requested and required for a thorough safety audit," said Hunter. "The report will be returned to council and administration by the auditor and that will best determine if these safety concerns were included in the audit, and council will have a chance to review that report for their September 25 regular council meeting. I will be satisfied if and when the safety concerns of firefighters are fully addressed."

The presentation was accepted as information by council.

In other council news, council carried a motion approving fire department policies, job descriptions and code of conduct for the Didsbury Fire Department.

The background information stated that: With the recent shift of focus and reorganization, the fire department has revised policies, job descriptions and code of conduct.

"It became evident during the course of the July review that there were no approved and/or active policies, standard operating procedures, code of conduct, or job descriptions for the Didsbury Fire Department," said Hunter.

"To have a functioning, effective, safe and informed body of workers in any work environment, all of these, and more, documents are required and necessary for clarity in processes for and expectations of everyone."

Having all of these documents will provide references and guidelines for workers to perform their jobs safely, efficiently and as effectively as possible, she said.