A new report says the city would need to make substantial investments in its own infrastructure before it could offer fire dispatch services to other municipalities.
The report, written by St. Albert's fire chief and director of emergency services Everett Cooke, is the result of an information request submitted by Coun. Sheena Hughes.
It says the city's existing fire dispatch call centre would need to be expanded and at least five more full-time staff hired, and it is likely more equipment and technology would also be required.
“When designed, the intent of the fire dispatch call centre was to only meet the needs of the St. Albert Fire Service, along with the requirements of being a backup centre to our (Public Safety Answering Point, which is housed in the RCMP detachment),” Cooke wrote.
“Staffing levels, space, infrastructure, and internal procedures reflect this direction; as a result, increased service provision cannot be delivered with our existing setup.”
Hughes' information request was submitted in June after council voted to reverse a previous decision to outsource the city's fire dispatch service in an effort to save money.
When voting to outsource dispatch services last year, council was under the impression that contracting a third party could save up to $340,000 annually. However, after the city received just one bid for the contract, council learned potential savings had dwindled to about $20,000 a year.
During council's debate in June, Hughes argued if outsourcing the service wouldn't save the city much money, it might be worthwhile to look into having St. Albert offer dispatch services to other municipalities in an effort to generate new revenue.
Cooke's report also notes, however, the consultant hired last year to analyze St. Albert's emergency communications model for any potential efficiencies had found the market for municipalities or organizations offering fire dispatch services is saturated, and revenue opportunities are limited.
“Should council direct administration to further explore this option, administration would require the assistance of an external project manager to lead the process from point of conception, sourcing potential client municipalities (and) organizations and implementation of potential new contracts,” Cooke wrote. “At this point, given current priorities and resourcing, there is insufficient capacity to take on a project of this scope and scale."
“Should council direct administration to pursue this work at this time, administration would conduct a reprioritization assessment to determine which projects (or) initiatives would be impacted by reallocation of resources.”
Although Cooke's report doesn't include any estimates for the cost involved in expanding the city's existing fire dispatch infrastructure, Coun. Hughes said it's likely not cost-effective at this time.
“If something else changes in the future we can definitely look into it, but at this point, it's just not going to be justified,” Hughes said. “What we'd have to see is if there would be a justification for that level of expenditure for improved services.”
When asked if she was surprised with administration's preliminary analysis, Hughes said she didn't have any expectations.
“I didn't really have an opinion about which way it would go, but I'm glad I asked the question, and that way at least we know what would be the consequences of moving in this direction at this time,” she said.
“I think the big thing that we have right now is just the fact that the fire dispatch is remaining in-house; that's the main issue that many residents were hoping would be addressed.”
