Fire Departments

[Drake]

I have a couple thoughts on this. A regionalized fire department could save money if it were limited to the urban areas of the region. For example, if Kitchener and Waterloo were to share resources the placement of their stations and the purchasing of equipment and training, not to mention administration, could be a benefit to all.

To regionalize the entire region would likely require building new stations in the rural areas and staffing them solely for the reasoning that the people are paying for full time fire services and expect the same level of response as in the cities. The amount of fires in these areas I am guessing don't support paying full time fire fighters to sit around for weeks on end with no fire to put out, but God forbid one happens and the RFD doesn't show up within "X" number of minutes.  

The current set up of volunteer fire departments I would expect are real cost savings.

If there Waterloo Fire Department were to respond to fires at the Farmer's Market (Woolwich)-- that would make sense. It is 2km from the Northfield Station. If they are expected to respond to Elmira and beyond, it really doesn't make much sense in my opinion. What cost increases are they proposing to the residents of these townships?

My other thought is the politics. The city of Waterloo by far pays the largest line item in their budget to their Fire Department. I really question why Waterloo would need to exist if this item moved to the regional budget instead. I wonder if this is what is really holding back the move to regionalize the fire department.

Here is the 2015 Waterloo Budget