Service groupings at the heart of fire safety reform

According to our information, the Minister of Public Security of Quebec, François Bonnardel, should table a bill by the end of the summer to reform fire safety in the province.

The provincial government intends to encourage municipalities, particularly those with fewer than 5,000 people, to consider grouping together fire safety services (SSI).

This was also one of the recommendations of coroner Cyrille Delagé, in the wake of the L’Isle-Verte tragedy which cost the lives of 32 seniors in January 2014 at the Le Havre residence.

Quebec currently has 607 fire safety services. This is 36.8% less than in 2000 when the province had 960. While it is undeniable that there are fewer, there are still too many according to Public Security.

In addition, 459 of these fire safety services cover municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants.

The MRC des Basques in Bas-Saint-Laurent brings together ten municipalities, but has five different fire departments on its territory. Nonsense according to the prefect, Bertin Denis.

It is for this reason that the council of mayors commissioned an external consultant to evaluate the advantages of a future grouping. And to try to propose something that will bring everyone togethermentions the prefect.

All our fire services are on the line of acceptable, unacceptable. There are minimum standards now that must be respected.

The consultant’s report will be submitted at the beginning of 2025, but Bertin Denis is already convinced. We are at the point of choosing which form of grouping we should use. Either a delegation to the MRCeither an intermunicipal board or another form.

If parochial wars derailed the first attempt at regrouping in 2016, the spirit has changed since then, according to the prefect of the Basques. We won in opening.

He hopes that the regrouping of fire services in his territory will come to fruition before the municipal elections of November 2025.

Significant advantages

If we combined our physical strengths as much as our strengths [financières]we could consider modernizing our equipment more quickly and more efficientlyestimates Mr. Denis, who gives the example of the possible purchase of a ladder truck. It would be thinkable if we all got together to buy it.

This is a notable advantage according to the Association of Fire and Civil Safety Managers of Quebec (AGSICQ) which recently submitted a memorandum to the Ministry of Public Security, following consultations carried out on the sidelines of the reform. future.

In this document, the Association makes five recommendations, including that of halving the number of fire departments in the province. To ensure that we meet the challenges that await us in fire safety in the coming yearsexplains its co-president, Jean Bartolo.

Labor is particularly at the heart of concerns. Over the last four or five years, we have noticed an increasing difficulty in hiring firefighters.reveals Mr. Bartolo.

A recent publication from the Ministry of Public Security, Portrait of Quebec fire safety services and their workforce in 2022indicates that the number of firefighters in the province decreased by 2.7% between 2018 and 2022, from 20,968 to 20,394.

Barely 11 months ago, the Gaspé municipalities of Escuminac, Nouvelle and Maria delegated their skills in fire safety to the City of Carleton-sur-Mer.

By having a larger service, we are able to have more volume and then become more attractive for recruiting.underlines the mayor, Mathieu Lapointe. We really saw a positive impact in terms of recruitment.

Now, the four barracks have all their staff, so we are able to respond to the risk coverage plan adds the mayor.

Ultimately, we improve the service we offer to the population.

Quebec will have to invest more

Mathieu Lapointe is also president of the central cities caucus ofUMQmade up of around sixty urban municipalities in rural areas. They provide services to surrounding municipalities.

During an exchange with Minister François Bonnardel last Friday, he nevertheless expressed some concerns. We wanted to ask the minister to take into account the role we play within the MRC and to come and support us financially to encourage groupingsunderlines Mr. Lapointe.

He confides that some municipalities may hesitate to take the leap and take other fire departments under their wings because of the costs that this can generate.

Open in full screen mode

In many cases, standardization of practices is required. This may require investments in terms of equipment, human resources, trainingindicates the president of the central cities caucus.

Jean Bartolo of theAGSICQ nevertheless believes that the government must at all costs avoid forcing municipalities to regroup. There are places where it is a success […]. There are other places where the distances are so great that we have to look for other solutions.

The consolidation of services is not the miracle recipe in each region of Quebec either.

It is nevertheless necessary, according to him, that each MRC take the time to have this discussion. Ultimately, what we are proposing is to carry out studies of opportunities which will provide guidelines for a possible grouping.

The Ministry of Public Security is currently analyzing the submissions submitted by the various partners concerned with fire safety to identify the directions of the reform.