qathet Regional District (qRD) will consider appointing the manager of emergency services as the regional district’s fire inspector and investigator as required by provincial legislation.
At the October 23 committee of the whole meeting, Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne said the Fire Safety Act is something that has been bounced around at the Union of British Columbia Municipalities for about eight years and he recalls the issue coming up at the electoral area directors forum earlier this year. He said regional districts are not able to do fire investigations themselves because service areas are limited.
“We could designate an individual and that individual could simply forward requests to the office of the fire commissioner, and they could conduct investigations on our behalf,” said Gisborne. “That would allow us to meet the act without having to incur any costs. A big concern of the Fire Safety Act is provincial downloading.”
Gisborne put forward a motion that the board designate the manager of emergency services as the point of contact to forward fire services requests from the office of the fire commissioner to conduct fire investigations on behalf of the regional district at no cost.
Manager of emergency services Ryan Thoms said the act and the fire commissioner have specifically said they expect regional districts to appoint investigators and inspectors. He said, however, a compromise has been reached that with the need for investigations or inspections in regional district electoral areas, there can be a request made by the regional district to the office of the fire commissioner to send staff to perform these duties.
“They have still not backed away from the requirement to appoint an inspector and investigator,” said Thoms. “However, the process would be to then ask the fire commissioner to do it for us.”
qRD chief administrative officer Al Radke said the legislation stipulates that the regional district must designate, in writing, a person, to be a fire inspector and/or a fire investigator.
“We need to do that,” said Radke. “That individual will be the contact person who can then throw it over to the province.”
Outgoing City of Powell River director George Doubt said the committee was accomplishing two things. One is that the committee was recommending that the regional board was doing what is demanded by the legislation by appointing a fire inspector and investigator. He said the committee was also recommending that the regional district not do any fire inspecting or investigating.
“We’re going to give the province the ability to do that,” said Doubt. “We don’t need to involve the local fire chiefs in that.”
The committee carried a motion that it recommends that the board designate the manager of emergency services as the fire inspector and fire investigator for qRD, to forward requests for fire service providers from the provincial office of the fire commissioner, and to conduct fire investigations and fire inspections on behalf of the regional district at no cost.
Join the Peak's email list for the top headlines right in your inbox Monday to Friday.
