MINTO – A fire service agreement that will see Minto, Wellington North and Mapleton sharing a fire services management team has been approved by council here.
Minto council authorized the agreement, which has already been approved by the other two municipalities, at its March 5 meeting.
“We’re the last one to do it here and it will be approved by all three and it will be a go to start April 1,” Minto Fire Chief Chris Harrow told council.
Under the agreement, Wellington North, Minto and Mapleton will share a six-person fire services management team consisting of a fire services director (fire chief), two deputy chiefs, a fire prevention officer/inspector, training officer and administrator/public educator.
The agreement is similar to one already in place between Minto and Wellington North, in which Harrow acts as director of fire services for both municipalities, assisted by deputy chiefs Callise Loos and Marco Guidotti.
Minto Fire Chief Chris Harrow will be director of fire services for the three northern Wellington municipalities under a new agreement between Minto, Mapleton and Wellington North to share a fire services management team.
The expanded agreement will add a fire prevention officer, training officer and administrative assistant to the management team.
Each of the seven fire stations in the three municipalities (Clifford, Harriston, Palmerston, Arthur, Mount Forest, Drayton and Moorefield) will have a district chief to run day-to-day operations.
Under the agreement, all six members of the management team will be Town of Minto employees, with Minto contracting out services to the other two municipalities.
District fire chiefs and volunteer staff in Minto, Wellington North and Mapleton would remain employees of their respective municipalities.
A joint oversight committee will be made up of the CAOs and three council representatives from each municipality.
Councillor Ron Elliott asked how the management positions will be filled.
Harrow explained that four of the six staff are already in place.
“They are inherited staff … we have three in Minto here and one from Wellington North,” said Harrow.
“We have three here. We’re bringing Marco over from Wellington North to Minto become a Minto employee and then we will hire two more at large,” he explained.
“We will be going at large, both internally and externally, for the training officer position and the administrative help position,” he added, noting postings for the positions are expected to go out as soon as the agreement is signed.
Harrow told council the agreement will be for a term of 10 years, although there are exit clauses built in “that can be executed at any time.
“What we’ve learned from the partnership we’ve had with Wellington North for the previous four and a bit years is we need the longer term to have that mandate to be able to make changes and to be able to put longer-term buying plans together that we’re hoping will show savings in the future,” he explained.
The agreement calls for Mapleton and Wellington North to compensate Minto for the costs incurred by Minto to provide the services, with each contracting municipality contributing 30 per cent and Minto picking up 40%.
“This is a shared service between north Wellington, between three municipalities here,” said Mayor Dave Turton, noting he has spoken with Mapleton Mayor Gregg Davidson and Wellington North Mayor Andy Lennox “and they’re pretty excited about this.”
Turton pointed out the agreement is not the first joint venture between the three municipalities, which also work together in an economic development partnership.
“And looking down the road, don’t be surprised if we have more,” he suggested.
