NEWS FILE PHOTO A Medicine Hat firetruck is seen outside the downtown YMCA in September 2019. Cypress County and the City of Medicine Hat are close to finalizing a new fire services agreement as the March 31 deadline looms.
Alberta Newspaper Group
Cypress County and the City of Medicine Hat are close to finalizing a new fire services agreement as the March 31 deadline looms.
Both sides say talks have been going well since doing monthly meetings back in November.
“The current agreement the county and city signed on July 5, 2018, expires on March 31, 2020,” said Jeffrey Dowling, Cypress County’s director of municipal services.
“We’ve started before Christmas, back in November, both the city and the county, our administration and the respective fire chiefs started to meet and discuss the possibilities of entering into a new agreement and continuing on with the services provided mutually to both municipalities.”
The agreement needs to address the provision of fire fighting services provided mutually between both jurisdictions, the costs and compensations paid to each jurisdiction for providing service and then the area the service would be provided in, added Dowling.
“In our case, there is an area that surrounds sort of on the east, south and the west side of Medicine Hat in Cypress County,” said Dowling.
“It includes the Hamlet of Veinerville, slightly south of the Hamlet of Dunmore and west a little bit of the Hamlet of Desert Blume is the area that is serviced with our agreement with the city.”
The meetings have brought up mutual aid situations, where the city would require the county’s services, that Cypress County would offer that service too.
Additionally, discussions commenced on a specific area the city responded to and be in a capacity for additional back up service or response.
Dowling says the meetings have been positive.
“We appreciate the service Medicine Hat to date,” he said.
“The agreement would have to be passed by both municipal councils. Currently at this point we see no reason not to continue the successful partnership we’ve had between the two jurisdictions for firefighting services.”
He anticipates a deal will be struck before the deadline.
Medicine Hat fire chief Brian Stauth could not agree more that the negotiations are going smoothly with the county.
“The conversation have been very positive,” he said.
“I think both the county and the city realize there is a mutual benefit to an agreement for fire and rescue services. We’re working to that end.”
Stauth says the city is looking for an opportunity to provide assistance to the county when needed and if their services are tapped out, Medicine Hat wants to look to Cypress County.
“I say from the city’s perspective financially we just want to look for an agreement that’s fair to the city’s taxpayers and the county’s rate payers.”
