New fire bylaw limits liability

By Sharon McLeay Times Contributor

Risk management was on Wheatland County council’s mind Aug. 14, when they reviewed a new fire services bylaw drafted to address liability and safety issues across fire services in the county.
Joanne Klauer, legal counsel for the county, presented rationale and legal interpretation of the new bylaw to clarify its content for council and those present at the meeting.
“There is recognition of the responsibility, and importantly, the liability by the county in the context of current legislation,” said Klauer.
There were changes to the provincial Occupational Health and Safety Act, Worker’s Compensation and provincial fire regulations. Klauer said the new bylaw looks at fire protection in a holistic manner.
The move to a new bylaw was an attempt to consolidate content in bylaw 2010-03, 2014-31 and bylaw 2017-44 into a comprehensive fire services bylaw, bringing a minimum level of consistency to all the fire services in the county.
The revision was based on a fire service bylaw currently in use in Vulcan County, which also incorporates agreements with a fire association.
The county recognised it needed to protect the safety of fire-fighters, the public and properties, while addressing liability issues that may arise for the county in provision of fire services.
“Instead of Wheatland County operating in separate fire districts, there is more of Wheatland County council looking at the overall picture in the county, regardless of the jurisdictional boundaries,” said Klauer. “What does Wheatland County council want to provide to its residents across the county from border to border? What are its available resources and what’s the best allocation of those resources?”
Some of the revisions included a fire hierarchy that placed Wheatland County Regional District Fire Chief at the head of the overall services, with direction to the various county services on their training, operational procedures and accountability reporting.
“Once the county sets a policy, then it becomes the county’s operational responsibility to ensure that the policy is implemented and followed. And so that is why you see built into this new fire services bylaw the reporting requirements, minimum standards and reference to the county’s standard operating guidelines and standard operating procedures that are binding, and have to be followed and adhered to by the fire protection associations,” said Klauer. “So this is where the fire associations are accountable to the regional district fire chief.”
This applied to liability risks because in litigation situations, adherence to county policies will be used to gauge if guidelines were not followed and constitute a case for negligence settlements to the plaintive.
“How do you ensure the compliance? Through supervision, monitoring, reporting … and record keeping is key,” said Klauer.
While the fire services are protected under a provincial good faith clause, the policy is the reference as to whether good faith was shown in any incident. It also defines the scope under which the fire associations operate, according to the service agreements required by the county’s policies. Klauer said clear parameters protect everyone involved.
She emphasized that having oversight and consistency in the county policy also ensures training and equipment standards are maintained by all the service, and everyone involved plays a part in contributing to the smooth operation and protection of fire personnel.
“None of this works if anyone operates in a silo,” said Klauer. “Aside from your statutory and legal obligations, nobody wants a fire-fighter to get hurt providing fire protection services. So, taking these enhanced steps, to ensure you have proper training and proper equipment across the board, goes beyond what you have to do, but becomes something you want to do.”
The fire service agreements will allow some room to adapt some policies to the needs of each area; however, there are certain parameters that must be included in the fire service agreements with the area fire associations.
Klauer said the fees and equipment expenditure policies are a way for council to provide accountability to the ratepayers.
The Capital Fire Services committee would be formalized and continue to relate equipment requests for council.
On a go-forward basis, the new bylaw sets out ownership for any equipment purchased wholly or in part by the county and will list the county as the owner of the equipment. Klauer said any equipment purchased exclusively by fire associations, or exclusively by community donations would not list the county as owner. The county also has the authority to charge all or partial fees for fire response, when they deem it necessary, and fee schedules are attached to the bylaw.
The complete bylaw can be seen under the Aug. 14 agenda, starting at Page 211.
The slated second reading of the bylaw was postponed due to resident and fire services objections to parts of the bylaw, and council asked that those objecting to parts of the bylaw submit written suggestions on alternate wording. A meeting will be held to further discuss objections with fire service associations, crews and the public in the near future, prior to the bylaw coming before council for second reading.