Debate over volunteer firefighters to spark up again with Sudbury inquest

Sudbury's fire optimization plan, the controversial proposal to overhaul the city's fire department, seemed to be totally extinguished when council voted unanimously against even receiving the report last year.

But the debate, which rekindled some of the bitter feelings left over from amalgamation, appears ready to start up again, just a week before Sudburians go to the polls.

A coroner's inquest will begin October 15 into a 2013 boat crash on Lake Wanapitei that killed three young people.

The incident raised questions about the 911 system, as well as how well the volunteer firefighters that serve that area of Greater Sudbury responded that night.

Rob Hyndman, a Sudbury firefighter who is the president of the Ontario Professional Firefighters Association, hopes voters will be listening carefully to the evidence presented at the inquest and asking some hard questions.

"What has been done to improve water rescue capabilities in the city and what should have been done," says Hyndman.

"And if the 'what should have' and the 'what have' are not equal, then I would be asking this mayor and council why not. Because again that was something that was addressed in the optimization." 

The fire optimiziation plan was a broad-ranging overhaul of the Sudbury fire department, calling for most volunteer firefighters in the outlying areas of the city to be replaced with full-timers.

Nine fire halls in the outlying areas would also have been closed and millions of dollars spent to build new halls and replace aging fire trucks.

It would have also seen all Greater Sudbury taxpayers charged the same for fire service. Currently, people in the outlying areas pay $100 less in property tax every year than those in the old City of Sudbury.

Hyndman says city council did a "disservice" to the citizens by voting to not even receive the optimization report.

He says Greater Sudbury will have to implement some of the recommendations anyway, as comprehensive risk assessments among other regulations included in the optimization plan have since become provincial law. 

But there has been scant mention of the issues raised in the optimization plan since it was voted down in the spring of 2017, including during this election campaign.

"You know that's something I wouldn't want to bring up again. I think it does bother people. So I'm very happy to leave sleeping dogs lie," says Ward 6 city council candidate and volunteer firefighter Jesse Brooks.

"The residents were loud and clear that they enjoy the level of service they have and want to keep it that way," says Ward 6 incumbent and former city paramedic Rene Lapierre.

Former Sudbury fire chief Trevor Bain was one of the authors of the optimization report and following a public uproar was fired by city council last year amid allegations that he faced workplace harassment.

He is now campaign manager to mayoral candidate Bill Crumplin, who says that he and Bain have barely discussed the fire department.

"Trevor says it's over. The people have spoken and the city decision makers have decided this is what they want and that's what it's going to be," says Crumplin. 

But Hyndman warns city politicians against putting their heads in the sand.

"You're going to get a point where eventually things will have to be addressed. Someone is going to get critically injured or killed and the city is going to be liable for that," he says.

The Beaver Lake Fire Services Committee, concerned that the fire hall in their rural community currently only has three volunteer firefighters, is asking mayoral candidates for their position on the future of the fire department.