Merging Waterloo Region fire departments unlikely to happen, chair says

CTV Kitchener: Frank Lynn on merging fire services Kitchener firefighters are calling for an integrated fire department across Waterloo Region, but rural townships aren’t on board.

Kitchener firefighters are suggesting that it’s time to consider a single, integrated fire service for all of Waterloo Region, and at least one regional councillor is on board with the idea.

Kitchener Coun. Geoff Lorentz says fire services, currently run by individual cities and townships, should be treated like police and ambulances, which fall under the region’s purview.

“We have an integrated ambulance, regional ambulance system, we have an integrated regional police system, and they both work very well,” says Lorentz.

“And then we have seven fire departments. I think there’s something seriously wrong with this picture.”

But the four townships, which have fire departments consisting largely of volunteers, say switching to an integrated system would burden them with higher costs.

Woolwich Township has 150 volunteer firefighters. They’re paid $20 an hour when they’re called out to a fire or other emergency call, and the same rate for training sessions, but unlike their counterparts in Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge, don’t spend shifts waiting around a fire station.

“They’re just as well trained as a full-time firefighter, plus we can have 20 volunteer firefighters for the cost of one full-time firefighter,” says Woolwich Township Mayor Todd Cowan.

“For us, it really doesn’t dictate that we would need a full-time service for the number of calls that we would have.”

Regional chair Ken Seiling says he likes the idea of an integrated dispatch, but doesn’t see it happening anytime soon.

“It would require the agreement of all the area municipalities, and I don’t see any political will to do that, and I don’t see any interest on the part of the province in forcing the issue,” he says.

Where Seiling and others do see political will is on merging emergency dispatchers, putting all dispatchers in Waterloo Region under one roof – but while the idea of merging entire fire departments isn’t a new one, it appears that it will remain just an idea.