Halifax fire service wants to hear from the public as it plans for a growing population

The Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency (HRFE) held a public engagement session at the Halifax Central Library Monday afternoon, but only three participants showed up.

The HRFE is holding another public engagement session in Sheet Harbour on Tuesday, and two more in Williamswood and Eastern Passage on Wednesday. 

"I really hope that people take the opportunity to come out and share their opinions and perspectives and tell us their stories about their communities and what we can do to help provide a better service," said Scott Ramey, the HRFE assistant chief of operations, who led the session.

The sessions are being held to get the public's input before drafting a five-year strategic plan on how to best serve the municipality as its population continues to grow.

The strategic plan will look at the way the HRFE can improve its response standards, fire prevention, community risk-reduction programs and communication with the community. The plan will also address the needs of its buildings, fleet and staff.

"It's an opportunity to start looking toward the future and really start to catch up with the development of the community and putting the resources in place," Ramey said.

Brendan Meagher, president of the Halifax Professional Firefighters Association, hopes the sessions can create support for investment in fire services. 

"We need more firefighters on fire trucks," he said.

HRFE's current service delivery standard is based on getting 14 firefighters to a 2,000-square-foot home in 11 minutes. Meagher says that that standard is inadequate for larger buildings which are popping up across the Halifax Peninsula and Dartmouth in response to the growth in population.

"They require much more manpower and more staff than we have available," Meagher said.

Entering accreditation process

Derek Leblanc attended the session at the Halifax Central Library. 

"I wanted to hear what their priorities were and the approach they were taking to their strategic plan," Leblanc said.

"I heard about them entering an accreditation process and was curious to see what sort of standards the fire service would be applying to their service delivery model."

The strategic plan is needed for the HRFE to become accredited by the Commission of Fire Accreditation International (CFAI). 

There are nine CFAI accredited agencies in Canada but none in the Atlantic provinces. Accreditation will allow the HRFE to evaluate themselves against fire services worldwide and determine whether they are using the best firefighting practices or whether they need to improve.

Ramey hopes a draft of the strategic plan will be ready in three to six months.