2 years on, Yellowknife firefighters still pushing for transparency around public safety report

The president of the Yellowknife Firefighters Association wants to know whether the city has acted on any recommendations included in a 2022 public safety report, saying he still hasn't even seen the full document.  

Christian Bittrolff said the city's fire department is meanwhile still dealing with many of the same issues, two years later — including staffing challenges, training needs and an increase in calls for service.

"We have no idea if they've implemented anything — all the advice was redacted, so it's hard to say that anything got done. We wouldn't know," said Bittrolff. 

The city commissioned public safety consulting firm Dave Mitchell & Associates Ltd. to produce the safety report. The 143-page document examined various hazards in the city and the level of risk posed by those hazards, emergency preparedness, emergency response times, fire department staffing, training, equipment and the interplay between the N.W.T.'s 911 service and the city's dispatch centre, among other things.

The city received the report in 2022 and later gave the fire department a heavily redacted copy.

Bittrolff said he wonders if having access to the full report might have helped the local response to the 2023 wildfires.  

"We've had recent events that very much highlighted that we would have been far better off being more transparent. The funny thing about transparency is it usually increases efficiency," he said.

"When people know you're watching, they tend to do more, and do the right thing."

Bittrolff said many of the issues the city fire department faces remain unchanged — such as water supply, emergency response, staffing, training and dispatch issues. 

CBC News contacted the City of Yellowknife for an interview but no one was available to speak about the 2022 report or staffing at the fire department.

In 2023, a city spokesperson told CBC News some information in the report is "sensitive," so instead of giving over the full report, the city instead gave the fire department an overview in the fall of 2022, and then updated the department on next steps after that.

Similar reports done elsewhere publicly available

The consultants who did the Yellowknife report, Dave Mitchell & Associates, have done similar reports with recommendations for fire departments in other municipalities, and many of those reports are publicly accessible and unredacted.

One example is a strategic plan developed for the fire department in Prince George, B.C., a 147-page report that's publicly available in its entirety. 

Prince George's deputy fire chief Brian Burleigh said they first had a report done in 2015 by the consulting company, and it was updated in 2022.

"We're talking about facts, so from our perspective and our experience, that's why that report remained public — and it helped us get to where we're at today," said Burleigh.

The Prince George report included recommendations for things like additional staff and a dedicated training facility. Burleigh said his department was then able to work with the city as well as the community to decide what resources are needed. 

Some recommendations, like a new fire hall, have already been acted on. Burleigh says they're still working on others, such as the training facility and staffing.

Staffing concerns in Yellowknife remain 

In Yellowknife, Bittrolff said staffing is still a big issue for the fire department. He said when he started with the department 13 years ago, there would be around 3,700 calls per year — a number that has grown to more than 5,000 per year.

He said that's in line with increasing demands for service elsewhere in Canada, as well.

The department is required to have a minimum of six members on shift at a time. Bittrolff said this year, they are sitting at over 6,000 hours of logged overtime, with some members doing in excess of 500 hours. 

"That becomes that double-edged sword. You grind your employees down eventually. That's not a long-term solution, though. They'll find employment elsewhere and then compound the problem," Bittrolf said.

He added that the staffing system works with 36 members total. Currently, they are at 28 members with "a bunch of long-term vacancies."

He said they were budgeted for an additional position two years ago, but it still hasn't been filled.

"It's not equipment that puts out fires, it's firefighters that put out fires. So that's kind of the biggest risk, if we don't have the staff to do the job."