Temporary Waverley West fire station may not be finished by next year, councillors told

A temporary fire station for the Waverley West neighbourhood may not be up and running by next year as the City of Winnipeg had originally planned.

Officials from the fire paramedic service, along with representatives from departments of municipal accommodations and asset management, gave an update to city councillors on Tuesday.

The 2022 budget included $3 million for the project, which is meant to shorten response times for firefighters and paramedics in the southwest area of the city.

City officials originally planned to put the modular station on the future site of the South Winnipeg Recreation Complex near Bison Drive, where the new permanent fire station will also be built.

In an update to the protection and community services committee in March, city officials said the site would not work because it did not have water services.

On Tuesday, the committee heard that the city had still not found a suitable site, and a request for proposals for the procurement of the modular fire station had not been issued.

"I'm a little disappointed in this update," said committee chair Coun. Sherri Rollins.

"As a councillor, when I approve budget, I actually expect it to be done in-year. So you're basically telling me that it's at risk to not actually at all be done in-year."

Speaking to the committee, manager of municipal accommodations Brad Erickson and director of assets and project management Geoffrey Patton said the city was working on selecting a site, either on city-owned land or private property.

"It's extremely complicated, in terms of reviewing available sites and determining the path forward to make a recommendation on this," said Patton.

"We're looking to go to procurement in 2023. I would like to see the project completed in 2023 or possibly early 2024."

Rollins asked if the process could be expedited, so that the request for proposals could be issued in the current fiscal year instead of next year.

She asked for an update at next month's meeting to confirm that a site had been found.

"As a councillor, I'm looking for some hustle," she said.

"Waverley West – this is part of the risk mitigation."

The Waverley West neighbourhood has approximately 50,000 residents and no fire station.

Longer response times in Waverley West

The average total response time in Waverley West is 11 minutes and 27 seconds, according to  the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service's strategic direction report from 2020.

The modular station could shave three to four minutes off that time.

Response times across the city as a whole are significantly shorter than in Waverley West. According to the service's master plan response times for all of Winnipeg were under seven minutes 90 per cent of the time.

Winnipeg's fire Chief Christian Schmidt said city officials are doing everything they can to find a site.

"Certainly going into this, we were expecting, and everybody was expecting, that we'd be able to locate this modular on the South Winnipeg Rec. Complex. That is not possible, so we need to go to the backup plan now to seek this secondary site," he said in an interview with CBC News.

In the meantime, resources from the soon-to-be-demolished Windsor Park fire station will be moved to another location in the southern part of the city.

"Which will provide, while not the best response, will be a higher level of protection than we're able to offer there now," Schmidt said.