If a long debate in council chambers this week is any indication, St. Albert’s mayor and councillors are an extremely optimistic bunch. Either that, or they have a crystal ball that assures them that the city’s firefighters won’t face a major blaze before they make up their minds on the purchase of a new ladder truck. It’s sort of like asking if you’d prefer an optimist or pessimist to be behind the controls of the plane that’s winging you to Toronto.
First, a brief rundown of the facts as they have been presented to council. Our Fire Chief Ray Richards says that in order to properly fight fires in buildings of more than two storeys or with a footprint of more than 25,000 square feet, his crews need a new aerial truck. At present, 152 buildings fit that bill and include warehouses, high schools, the hospital, condos and many businesses in the light industrial parks.
The current ladder truck, purchased on 2009, is a lemon with the kind of repair history that will remind many people of their first worn-out jalopy. Since 2012, it has been in the shop more than 70 per cent of the time for work to its firefighting gear, in addition to repairs to its turbo, exhaust, cooling, transmission, heater, electrical, and air conditioning systems among other things. Heck, it was even in the shop for its check engine light. In 2014 this truck, which should be expected to roll each day, was used in six fires, but was in the shop 95 per cent of the time, according to a city report.
The city, wisely, decided to quit spending money on the unreliable machine last winter (public works has thrown over $160,000 at it, not including some $200,000 in warranty work) and council instructed administration to look for a replacement, which will cost about $1.5 million. It already has the money in place to cover such one-time, necessary expenses, but somehow expected to get a $500,000 trade-in value on its current machine. Administration has now two bids before it. One is a cash deal for a new machine and the other will offer a trade-in, but only a small one. The details of the bids are in a confidential report that wasn’t released publicly. You don’t have to be much of a horse-trader to figure out the logic behind that one. Why would anyone buy it?
Several councillors are now concerned about the added cost and it has gone up a lot. Coun. Cam MacKay wants to know if there was some way of sharing one of Edmonton’s ladder trucks, or if we need such equipment for a relatively small number of buildings. Coun. Sheena Hughes wonders why the city could not purchase a 25-year-old truck near the end of its life, for say, $80,000, a stopgap measure that was mentioned in December. Seemingly in another conversation, Coun. Wes Brodhead asks if the old one can be donated to a Third World country, if no buyer can be found. At the end of Tuesday’s debate, council delayed its decision in order to explore more options. It didn't seem to matter that an expert – the fire chief – says a new truck is necessary to ensure his department can adequately handle all fires that could occur in St. Albert. Instead, the fire chief was barraged with questions and suggestions by politicians who have no expertise in this area. Heck, even one councillor Googled fire trucks during the discussion, and from that Google search suggested there were all sorts of options available.
Fiscal prudence is usually a good thing and nobody wants to see money wasted. But we really have to wonder if this council’s obsession with money is clouding its view on public safety, which must be its foremost priority and was not mentioned in the debate.
So far, the city has been lucky that it hasn’t suffered any loss of life or property as its leaders dither. In a front page interview with Gazette reporter Victoria Paterson, the fire chief says without the truck, our firefighters can still effectively battle blazes, but it might take them a little longer to set up. If your building is burning, or your loved ones are inside, the extra few minutes are simply not good enough. That takes us back to our original point: Do you want an optimist or a pessimist flying the plane? To paraphrase an old saying, let’s hope council isn’t fiddling while St. Albert burns.
