The fire master plan is the hottest read in West Nipissing, and within those 254 pages are recommendations to close some municipal fire stations. Rest assured, no final decisions have been made, but council will discuss these recommendations for closure at an upcoming meeting.

the municipality has nine fire halls – or fire stations as outlined in the master plan – and the report’s authors recommend that Fire Station 3 be permanently closed.

Station 3 is the small white garage-sized building at 1377 Tomiko Road in Crystal Falls. The recommendation is to close that station and cover the Crystal Falls area with Station 2, at 552 Crystal Fall Road, within Crystal Falls.

The report also recommends that the municipality close Station 9, at 13 Waterfront Drive in Cache Bay. If closed, Fire Station 1, the main fire hall next to the municipal building at 225 Holditch Street in Sturgeon Falls, would cover the land of Station 9.

There could also be one more on the closing list. The report recommends that the municipality contact French River to discuss a fire protection agreement between the two districts. If anyone could be hit, the recommendation is to close Station 8, on Highway 64 in North Monetville.

The report also recommends consolidating Station 6 (on Principale Street in Verner) and Station 7 (Highway 64 in Lavigne) “in a central area between the two communities of Verner and Lavigne.”

The Fire and Emergency Services Master Plan was developed by Behr Integrated Solutions, which for the past ten months has been analyzing all aspects of West Nipissing’s emergency services. In March 2023, Fire Chief Frank Loeffen requested funds from the council (about $50,000) to hire consultants and fund the plan.

Council agreed and funding for the study came from a provincial grant called the Modernization Fund that the municipality had received a few years ago. The province has ordered all municipalities to create a Fire and Emergency Services Master Plan.

Tim Beckett and Isaac Comandante of Behr Integrated Solutions presented that report to the council at its last meeting.

Basically, as Chief Loeffen detailed last March, “the idea of ​​the plan is to develop a long-term strategic planning framework to guide the priorities and objectives of the West Nipissing Fire Department.” The recommendations it contains will help guide the municipality in the coming years when making decisions regarding the fire department.

See: West Nipissing Turns Up Pressure on Fire Master Plan

“Our goal was to examine all aspects of their fire department,” Becket explained, “and develop a seven-year master plan and community risk assessment.” The document covers all aspects of the service, with an emphasis on “firefighter safety, better cost control and containment within the service, increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the department, and identifying the right-sized service” for the needs of the service. community, Becket detailed.

Recommendations to close or merge the aforementioned fire stations could help achieve those goals, the report notes.

There were many recommendations in the report and many details for the council to consider. As such, “we will throw these (issues) out,” West Nipissing CAO Jay Barbeau said, “and bring them individually to council” for further consideration.

“We will provide space for discussion and intense debate” when that time comes, Barbeau said.

The full Fire and Emergency Services Master Plan will be published on the municipality’s website. A copy of Beckett and Commander’s presentation. can be found here.

David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter working at BayToday, a Village Media publication. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.