MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY - Mountain View County council has approved an updated fire services sub-agreement with the Municipal District (MD) of Bighorn, including new provisions simplifying fees charged for the use of firefighting and rescue equipment.
The inter-municipal collaboration committee, made up of representatives from both municipalities, recently recommended a number of updates to the existing fire services sub-agreement, the county's chief administrative officer Jeff Holmes said during the May 7 council meeting.
“The committee agreed that there was some minor updates that could be made to this agreement, as administratively we have gone back and forth with the MD of Bighorn and have prepared those amendments,” said Holmes. “We are the primary responder for a small area of Bighorn (west of Cremona).”
Under the existing fire service sub-agreement the county and the MD agree to provide emergency fire suppression and rescue service in designated service lands along the municipalities’ boundary.
“Mountain View County agrees to use its firefighting equipment in suppressing fires and rescue equipment for extrication purposes in the serviced lands subject to the MD making an annual operating expense contribution to Mountain View County to be used for the emergency fire suppression and rescue services to be provided, pursuant to the terms, covenants and conditions in the agreement.”
The previous agreement called for fees payable for fire response and rescue services shall be based upon: “$700 per hour for pumper, $520 for rescue unit, $450 for tender, $350 for bush buddy, $180 per hour for command/medical/transport vehicle, and $45.50 per hour per firefighters attending or on standby.
The update agreement now reads: “The fees payable for fire response and rescue shall be based upon the rates contained in the current year Alberta Transportation and Economic Corridors ‘Guidelines for Payments of Fire Department Emergency Response in Provincial Highway Right-of Ways.”
Vis-a-vis the change to fire equipment, Holmes said, “We wanted the flexibility to ensure that as our equipment changes, the agreement is not out of date. So we removed some definitions of some very specific pieces of equipment.”
Reeve Angela Aalbers said, “I think the update of referring the fees to the guidelines is really good because then we don’t have to keep updating this and it is pretty consistent. That makes things a lot simpler as well.”
The updated agreement also includes new wording in the emergency services section: “In the event of a response the county fire chief will provide notification of the response to the Bighorn fire chief as soon as practicable.”
Council carried a motion approving the updated sub-agreement. The MD of Bighorn council is expected to vote on the update later this month.
The updated sub-agreement will come into effect once both municipalities agree to it by way of motion.
