Fire chiefs around the region are applauding the provincial government's move to increase the fees that fire departments charge for responding to crash scenes.
Wayne Drysdale, the minister of transportation, recently announced that fire departments would be able to charge $600 per hour for large pumper trucks and rescue vehicles that respond to crash scenes.
Currently, the maximum that can be charged is $400 per hour, and that amount isn't covering the costs to municipalities of having the manpower and equipment respond to a scene.
The $400 per hour figure hasn't been reviewed in about 15 years. As a result, municipalities were picking up the shortfall in costs.
Fees will also be adjusted on an annual basis from now on.
“It reflects the cost of doing business,” said Ric Henderson, director of disaster services with Red Deer County. “It's helping the municipality offset the cost of responding to motor vehicle collisions.”
When a call for service is received, the fire departments incur manpower costs and operation and maintenance costs on the vehicles, as well as the capital costs for various pieces of extrication equipment. The longer emergency responders are on the scene, the more the costs add up.
“Quite often, fire (personnel) end up helping with traffic control while police are (dealing with) tow trucks and a collision analyst is doing an investigation. It could be quite awhile,” Henderson said.
While firefighters are helping with a collision scene, it takes them away from other events that they otherwise might respond to.
In Red Deer County, the municipality has its own rural fire department in addition to agreements with several urban municipalities stipulating that the county will respond to any disaster scenes outside of urban boundaries.
The county also has an agreement with the City of Red Deer that the city will respond to any scenes within its boundaries and also directly outside its boundaries for a prescribed distance.
Red Deer County doesn't provide financial support to the City of Red Deer to maintain its fire service.
Darryl Nielsen, fire chief for the Town of Carstairs, said another important change that was made regarding fire departments responding to crash scenes is that the amount that departments are able to charge for call-outs will be reviewed annually.
The previous amount of $400 per hour was set about 15 years ago and has never been reviewed.
“Before, it was just kind of set in place and nobody set a review date for it. Here we are 15 years later and it hasn't even been looked at, so it has been a long time coming and it's very beneficial to taxpayers of individual areas. In the past the $400 (per hour) wasn't covering the cost so any amount above that was left to the (municipalities),” he said.
“It will be beneficial to the taxpayers of our small regions,” he said.
Another important change, Nielsen said, is that a schedule has been drafted indicating what fire departments are able to charge when different pieces of equipment are brought to a scene. The policy up to now didn't specify that.
"Here we are 15 years later and it hasn't even been looked at, so it has been a long time coming and it's very beneficial to taxpayers of individual areas."Darryl Nielsenfire chiefTown of Carstairs
