Halifax considers fast-tracking new firefighters for Upper Tantallon

Halifax is considering fast-tracking more firefighters for Upper Tantallon to address staff shortages in a growing area that experienced a devastating wildfire in 2023.

Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency's $92-million budget for the coming year includes plans to cope with the city's growing population and wildfire risks while working toward faster response times. Introducing plans to municipal councillors at budget committee meetings last week, the department said it wants to add 15 new firefighters in Upper Tantallon or Hammonds Plains.

That would allow career firefighters to work around the clock, supported by volunteers. The stations now only have career members there for regular business hours during the week, with volunteers covering evenings and weekends.

Brendan Meagher, president of Halifax Professional Firefighters Association, told councillors the department needs to run two training classes a year to catch up with staffing shortfalls and pending retirements.

The current Halifax Regional Municipality budget says training for new recruits will begin in February 2025.

"I think that it's not soon enough," Meagher said in a recent interview.

Coun. Pam Lovelace asked staff to calculate how much it would cost to have the Upper Tantallon class start this fall instead of next year.

Lovelace said thousands of housing units will be coming on the market soon along Pockwock Road, and there are other planned developments in the area, all emptying onto busy Hammonds Plains Road.

"I do think that it's well beyond time that this community [has this service], which continues to exist in an extreme wildfire area, as well as the fact that … we still have deficits with regards to egress," Lovelace said.

Council will decide whether to fund that request during budget adjustments at the end of March.

The fire department will also assess emergency planning in areas expected to grow around Halifax and update its wildfire strategies following the Upper Tantallon blaze.

That will see the fire department buy specialized trucks and sprinkler trailers for combating wildfires, and a mobile fire suppression unit that's a first for Atlantic Canada, said fire Chief Ken Stuebing.

Stuebing said he's excited to work with the provincial Department of Natural Resources to test new early-detection technology that could get crews out to a forest fire hours before it's normally reported.

"This allows us to fight the fire when it's small and probably stop it from spreading. That work is going to be a first for Canada, and a first on the Atlantic seaboard of North America," Stuebing said.

The budget report shows the fire department is close to hitting its targets for arriving on scene to fire and medical calls. But it meets the firefighting standard of 14 members on scene within 11 minutes just 57 per cent of the time, far below the 90 per cent target. Rural or suburban areas often see the longest delays. 

Construction is also expected to begin soon on a new $40-million, four-bay fire station and headquarters in Bedford West on Symonds Road, just off Hammonds Plains Road. Completion is slated for spring 2026.

"This is absolutely in the middle of an area that is growing, that is underserved," area Coun. Tim Outhit said in a recent interview.

Stuebing also said some traffic-calming measures around Halifax are affecting emergency response times because firefighters have to drive over speed bumps to get to fire hydrants. And fire trucks can't turn through some intersections  with bumped-out curbs, Stuebing said.

"Our ability to navigate to a call is getting harder and harder," Stuebing said. "Is it in fact affecting our response time? We think it is."

Coun. Sam Austin suggested using smaller fire trucks similar to European ones, which could better navigate urban areas with narrower streets. Stuebing said they will look at those options, which might make sense to buy when Halifax eventually converts to an electrical fleet.

The overall Halifax budget will be passed in April.