On November 14, the Municipality of Les Cèdres and the City of Saint-Lazare signed a letter of intent in which they expressed the possibility of sharing the Fire Safety Service of the City of Saint-Lazare, thus dismantling that of Les Cèdres.
Currently at the stage of reflections, analyzes and cost estimates, ultimately, this initiative will conclude the end of a chapter for the Cèdres fire safety service. Thus, the Fire Safety Service of the City of Saint-Lazare would then serve the Municipality of Cèdres. To do this, Saint-Lazare will absolutely have to increase its workforce.
The municipal administration of Les Cèdres expresses that the objective of this approach is to improve the feeling of security and the efficiency of its services. Depending on the information obtained, the opposite effect could result since the response time could be impacted. In addition, some fear that job losses may be expected.
For its part, the management of the Fire Department of the City of Saint-Lazare assures that the service will be increased. With this in mind, the City of Saint-Lazare underlines its intention to recruit firefighters from Les Cèdres in order to strengthen its workforce and ensure complete coverage of the two territories. As a result, barracks no. 5 in Les Cèdres, which would remain in operation, would benefit from an external guard 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, a service currently unavailable in Les Cèdres due to staff shortages.
This initiative also aims to respond to the challenges facing the Fire Department, particularly in terms of recruitment and financing. Indeed, it is becoming increasingly difficult to compete with the conditions offered by the largest fire safety services, which makes it difficult to retain staff. Likewise, financial needs are growing. To meet the current requirements of firefighters, it would be necessary to build a new station and acquire new vehicles. However, the Municipality does not have the financial resources to make these investments.
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