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Fire protection charges being reviewed

May 7, 2014   ·   0 Comments

By James Matthews – Orangeville town staff will evaluate fees the town charges surrounding municipalities for fire protection services.

The issue was broached by resident Chris Thomson during Monday evening’s town council meeting.

During 2014 Operating and Capital Budget discussions earlier this year, some questions had been raised about how neighbouring communities that avail of firefighting services are billed by Orangeville.

Mr. Thomson, a concerned resident, said East Garafraxa made about 37 calls for service last year.

“There will be weeks when they wouldn’t have any calls and my understanding is their fire protection would be free,” he said.

“If they don’t call, they don’t pay.”

He asked if Orangeville is being treated fairly by the surrounding communities by footing the costs to buy and maintain equipment.

“I know that part of it is negotiating with municipalities to try to come up with arrangements that they feel are a fair price and our municipality can live with,” said Mayor Rob Adams.

He said the town plans to review the fee structure “to see if it makes sense and we’re getting good value and if we’re capturing the cost.”

Fire Chief Andy Macintosh said a review was undertaken a few years ago and it was found that Orangeville was lagging behind in what it should have charged to provide fire protection services.

“So we did a 10 per cent increase yearly. Every year for the next five years, it is going up 10 per cent. We felt that brought us up to the same as other departments are charging in these areas.”

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