The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The City of Flin Flon is ready to stop sending firefighters to blazes in cottage subdivisions as early as July 1 unless a funding agreement is either reached or reasonably in progress. City council is asking area cottage owners to pay at least $300 a year, on an interim basis, for continued fire protection out of Flin Flon. Mayor George Fontaine outlined council's position in a March 8 letter to the Little Athapap and Schist Lake / Big Island cottage owners associations. '...please be advised that in the event that a satisfactory interim fire services agreement has not been reached before July 1, 2013,' wrote Mayor Fontaine, 'or if the progress towards such an agreement seems insufficient by that date, the City reserves the right to unilaterally cease responding to fires in the cottage area from that date forward.' A copy of the letter was released to the media on Tuesday. It is reprinted in full later in this article. No response Deputy Mayor Tim Babcock said Tuesday that council has yet to receive a response from the cottage associations. In releasing the letter to The Reminder and CFAR, Babcock said council wanted to ensure all cottagers have the information they need. 'We're not necessarily in a negotiation, but there's definitely interested parties out there that we assume are getting information, but maybe they're not,' he said. 'We put that letter (out) and we deliver it to the cottage association(s), you know, the people that are supposed to be in charge, but we don't know if they're distributing it to their members or not. 'So I think at this point we'd like to release it to make sure (people see it), because it's an avenue that we can make sure that everybody is getting the information they need in order to make educated decisions of their own. 'We have a lot of people coming up to us (as councillors), questioning what we're doing and why we're doing it, how we're doing it, that clearly don't have the information that we have.' Though council is seeking at least $300 per cottage, the city previously stated the cost of the fire department, when divided evenly among all lots in Flin Flon and the cottage subdivisions, works out to $126 a year. In his March 8 letter, Mayor Fontaine addressed this discrepancy, saying the earlier figure did 'not take into account the greater time commitment for fighting fires outside of City boundaries, nor the greater wear and tear on equipment, nor the increased fuel costs.' It's not clear how or if cottagers would access fire protection if Flin Flon firefighters were no longer an option. A Manitoba government spokesperson told The Reminder in February that the province is aware of the situation. 'The (province) is working with the municipality and the cottage association to find a solution that ensures important emergency services are provided for every home in the area,' the spokesperson said at the time. See 'No' on pg. Continued from pg. Flin Flon has historically sent its firefighters to structural fires in cottage subdivisions even though there is no legal requirement _ or funding arrangement _ to do so. Of the six cottage area fires to which Flin Flon has responded over the last decade, the city says only one carried enough insurance to cover the full same-day cost. Council has spent months corresponding with the cottage associations in an attempt to have cottagers provide direct funding to the municipality _ and not only for fire protection. Failing a voluntary funding deal that satisfies the city, council is prepared to attempt to annex some or all of the Manitoba cottage subdivisions near Flin Flon. The provincial government, however, would have the final say on annexation. The following is Mayor Fontaine's complete March 8 letter: Dear Sirs: Re: Fire Services - Cottage Areas Further to the City's correspondence of January 30, 2013, this is to address an interim agreement for the provision of fire services to the cottage areas. Yours of January 25 identified fire protection services as being an area of interest to the Cottage Associations. Having provided these services to the cottage areas for many years, the City is also ready to contemplate continuing to provide them. However, the nature of the arrangements should become formalized in an agreement, and this agreement will be strongly influenced by two basic principles. The first principle is that fire service billings should not be based on 'same day' operating costs alone but should also take into account other costs such as training, fire station overhead expenses, and capital costs. Past compensation models for service, which focused on same day operating costs alone, are no longer acceptable to the City. Instead, the City requires a yearly fee in order to ensure that the City is retained as a fire service provider. If this fee is paid, no separate billing will be made for service in the event of a fire. The fee, if agreed to by the Cottage Associations, would be collected by the Province and remitted to the City. All cottages within agreed areas of coverage would need to participate. A patchwork of covered and uncovered properties, in close proximity to each other, would be a nightmare to contend with, in the event of an actual fire, and the City will not participate in such a scenario. The second basic principle is that the amount of the yearly fee will be higher, in the event of a stand-alone deal (that is, for fire services by itself) than it would be if there were a comprehensive package deal. Lest any confusion arise, numbers referred to in earlier correspondence as a costing for fire services used calculations based on an equal sharing between city dwellers and cottage dwellers. They included yearly operating costs, with some consideration of overhead expenses such as heating the fire hall, but largely left out potential capital replacement costs. This earlier approach, while defensible from the City's perspective as a 'sweetener' in the event of a package deal, does not take into account the greater time commitment for fighting fires outside of City boundaries, nor the greater wear and tear on equipment, nor the increased fuel costs. Viewing the numbers stated earlier for fire service in isolation also does not take into account the budgetary effect of subsidies that City dwellers are paying to enable the provision of other services, such as in recreation, which Council feels continue to be enjoyed by cottage area residents, and for which non-resident user fees will not realistically cover budget shortfalls. Finally, and more subtly, perhaps, for as long as the cottage associations approach regional services they want to pay for, the City feels itself free to adopt a 'retail provider' philosophy in response, and charge for the selected service on something more closely approximating a commercial approach. This means that, for the interim agreement, at least, the amounts charged by the City for fire need not precisely match yearly internal costs, but may be influenced also by more general concerns, including but not limited to long term capital investment in new trucks, fire hall renovations, etc. Taking all these factors into account, City Council believes that the yearly service charge for fire protection services should be set at no less than $300 yearly, on an interim basis, for 2013, pending the outcome of further discussion on other potential included services and charges. This yearly fee could potentially be reduced in a future 'package deal'. It could also be increased, if the hope for a package deal recedes, or if yearly inflation and other factors make increased rates necessary. A new rate will have to be set for 2014, when the time comes. As referred to earlier, the City is not prepared to continue fire service based only upon those arrangements which have existed in the past. It is prepared to meet directly, as soon as possible, with Cottage Association representatives to consider matters related to a potential interim fire agreement, as well as other potential areas of service. See 'Appro...' on pg. Continued from pg. The City will not act hastily and will respond appropriately to all reasonable efforts being made at discussion, including potential rescheduling of deadlines. However, please be advised that in the event that a satisfactory interim fire services agreement has not been reached before July 1, 2013, or if the progress towards such an agreement seems insufficient by that date, the City reserves the right to unilaterally cease responding to fires in the cottage area from that date forward. Though some sort of timeline is necessary in the circumstances, I am confident that we can work together to conclude an interim arrangement for fire protection in a timely way, and I remain hopeful on the outcome of further discussion on other potential services. I look forward to further discussion with you, either in person or through correspondence. Yours truly, George Fontaine Mayor
