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OPINION: Regional fire services in Ponoka will be an election issue

For those looking to run as a councillor for Ponoka; fire services will be one of the big topics
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Here’s a hot tip for those looking to run as a candidate for the Town of Ponoka municipal elections: regional fire services will be an election issue.

It will be at the forefront of everyone’s mind. Incumbents and new candidates will need to have a pretty firm grasp of why they want standalone or regional fire services.

This has become an such an issue that it has split the community, created mistrust among our current elected officials and has cost residents — in both the town and county — hundreds of thousands of dollars.

For the winning vote of 4-3 in favour of a standalone fire department in Ponoka, the issue has never been about the good of the residents despite all the rhetoric. If it was, we would be in a regional fire services arrangement.

Ponoka News posed a question on our Facebook page and it was a simple one: “Do you think the Town of Ponoka should be part of a regional fire services?”

It’s a question with a leading answer. Except for a few, no one really in their right mind wants to see a duplication of service, which we currently have.

This fundamental question is something the majority vote of council has never really asked residents. If they had, things would be different.

When Ponoka County first started making the moves to take over the Ponoka Fire Department and create a regional fire services, the majority of council did everything they could to hinder the process. Don’t believe me?

Here’s some interesting facts that those same councillors conveniently neglect to mention.

The county offered a pretty sweet deal to the town at the early onset of negotiations with the first being rather similar to the one the Town of Rimbey accepted: For Rimbey, in exchange for all of its fire assets (including equipment on the trucks) and the fire hall, the county would manage the fire services for 15 years with no cost to Rimbey. Ponoka County owned half the assets.

The town was offered a similar deal with the goal of negotiating on a certain number of calls. The value of the town’s assets would offset fire services.

This offer was rejected.

Then the county counter-offered with a new deal: buy all the town’s assets and the town would then pay for service on a per call basis. Currently the county’s fee is around $1,400 to $1,800 per hour depending on the severity with fire alarms being cheaper.

That offer was rejected.

After one year of operations the Ponoka Fire Department took in just over 100 calls. Do the math.

The department’s 2016 actual operating costs were $460,000, which came out of town residents’ wallets. This doesn’t include the $350,000 spent in MSI grant funding needed to buy a new rescue truck when the town became its own department.

Town residents were never really a factor in the majority vote of council.

Don’t believe me? Remember in September 2015 when the administration at the time told council there were two pickups that needed to be replaced because they weren’t “safe” to use? The $90,000 capital purchase, approved in a 4-3 split vote, was to replace a 1994 GMC one-ton diesel pickup and the 2006 Dodge half-ton extended cab. The one-ton is out of service.

The claim that the Dodge wasn’t safe to drive appears to have been a misnomer. It is still in use. Public works staff use it daily.

This has never been about benefitting the residents. During the initial phase of discussions there was a lot of “what ifs” being thrown around. Frankly all that did was add to the confusion and sowed seeds of doubt.

If those councillors were really interested in seeing this work out, they would have made every effort to negotiate and come up with a good deal. Rather than look at an end goal and the fundamental question of what residents want, it was all about why it couldn’t work.

This behaviour shows a lack of foresight that one can’t help but be disappointed by the actions of those who claim to represent the people who voted for them. This was never about residents as some of these councillors simply refused to to discuss the issue with anyone, further adding to the confusion.

Make no mistake, regional fire services will be front and centre in the next election.