Denied the ability to make their presentation to Greater Sudbury city council, a group of community advocates from Beaver Lake and Skead made their plea to local media instead.
During a media event at the Beaver Lake Sports and Cultural Club, the advocates made their case for the Beaver Lake emergency services station to remain open, and for the Skead station to get stocked with firefighting gear and apparatus.
As it stands, the Beaver Lake station is slated to close by the end of the month, and the Skead station isn’t set to receive firefighting gear and apparatus until they have a crew able to respond to calls.
A city spokesperson explained that the group’s request to present to city council was denied because their procedural bylaw stipulates, “Community delegations will not be included on an agenda where opportunities for public input have been provided by way of open houses, public hearings, surveys or other forms of civic engagement.”
Last year saw a series of public open houses take place throughout Greater Sudbury, including well-attended meetings in Beaver Lake and Skead.
Community advocates’ grievances date back to last year’s approval of the City of Greater Sudbury’s $164.6-million emergency revitalization plan, whose first phase is currently rolling out.
Both the Beaver Lake and Skead stations were originally recommended to close (with Beaver Lake consolidating at the Whitefish station and Skead consolidating with Falconbridge and Garson at a new site in Garson), until city council resolved last year to keep both stations open.
Greater Sudbury city council’s resolutions, which were approved on June 27, 2023, saw to it that the Beaver Lake station would remain open, “with a requirement to meet the average number of volunteers for all stations within one year and that an automatic aid agreement be negotiated at that time if required.”
With this one-year time limit expiring in a couple of weeks and there being no hope of reaching the current average number of volunteers (11, and they currently have five), it will consolidate with the Whitefish station, and an automatic aid agreement will be negotiated with Nairn Centre.
“Council provided us with very clear direction, and we are continuing to follow that direction as we always do,” city Fire and Paramedic Services Chief Joseph Nicholls told local media during a scrum at Tom Davies Square on Tuesday afternoon. The scrum was set up by city communications staff to respond to media inquiries coming out of that morning’s community presentation in Beaver Lake.
As for the Skead station, city council agreed to have it repaired so it can re-open. However, its longevity is called into question by the fact its modernization would only be considered “based on adequate average staffing levels for volunteers in stations at the time,” according to last year’s city council resolution.
The Skead station has since been repaired, but hasn’t been equipped with firefighting gear and apparatus.
Despite city and community volunteer recruitment efforts, neither station has met the 11-member average among volunteer stations, which would still fall short of the minimum number of members they’d require for their surrounding area to be considered “protected” by most insurers, which is 15.
Beaver Lake has two existing firefighters, three recruits in training and two new recruit applicants.
Skead has one existing firefighter, seven recruits in training and five new recruit applicants.
In their presentation to media on Tuesday, which was originally slated to be delivered to city council, Save the Skead Fire Station Committee member Nicole Everest described the city’s actions as “gaslighting and stonewalling,” and that city staff is dead-set on closing both stations.
Last year, the city offered positions to 42 volunteer firefighter recruits, including five in Beaver Lake and 11 in Skead.
These numbers have since dropped off, with the number of recruits in training down to three in Beaver Lake and seven in Skead.
Among those to drop off is Skead prospect Mike Mercier, who told Sudbury.com last year that he was unable to commit to weekend training.
Everest raised Mercier’s story as an example during Tuesday’s media event, noting that Mercier had firefighting experience and was willing to lend a hand, but wasn’t given enough flexibility in training to make it work.
Donald Donaldson served as Greater Sudbury’s fire chief from 2003 to 2008. He attended Tuesday’s meeting to show support for keeping the stations open.
“We would have looked at consolidating a few stations back then (when I was chief),” he told Sudbury.com after the meeting, adding that consolidating places like Garson and Falconbridge made sense, as they were so close.
However, he added, “We would have always had to keep stations in the outlying areas open.”
The city’s training “used to allow flexibility,” he said, “so it’s not a one-shot hit it or miss it.” The message volunteer firefighter prospects are receiving from the city now is, “We’re interested, we want you, but sorry we’ve got another roadblock to make sure it isn’t happening.”
Donaldson joined the community advocates in pushing for more flexibility in training hours so more people would be able to sign on as volunteer firefighters between working day jobs.
As for the Skead station, Everest said that the seven recruits in training and the one existing member should be allowed to perform some duties — a sentiment Donaldson endorsed.
“By allowing some of the lesser-trained volunteers the opportunity to respond, they can intervene,” he said, using the example of setting the groundwork for trained firefighters’ response and doing things like removing a propane tank out of the way of a fire’s destructive path.
“These volunteers are trained sufficiently now to respond and start to mitigate, but if you do not mitigate a fire, a fire will double in intensity every 60 seconds,” Donaldson said.
By adding equipment to the Skead station and finally allowing it to function as a fire station again, he said the city would be setting volunteer firefighters up for success.
Nicholls countered this point by clarifying that even a defensive fire attack can be dangerous, as the Jan. 24 explosion at a four-plex residential building in Capreol proved. Three Greater Sudbury firefighters outside the building were injured when it exploded.
“The firefighters’ safety is our absolute, paramount concern,” Nicholls said, clarifying that Skead’s firefighters aren’t at the level they need to be to tackle fires independently.
Although the community advocates described one Skead firefighter as a “veteran,” Nicholls clarified that he hasn’t taken certification yet, and that the station is “a long way” from having a captain, which is required to supervise calls.
“We continue to put together a program over this year and next, where we’ll start allowing them to respond to calls in Garson, and those potentially in Skead, but we have to ensure they have a supervisor present when they're doing it,” Nicholls said.
Since they’re still responding out of the Garson station, there’s no reason to have equipment in Skead.
As for adding more flexibility in training, which has been an ongoing point of community advocacy, Nicholls defended the city’s practices as “top-notch.”
“What we’re implementing right now is a mandated regulatory training requirement,” he said. “What you end up with is a single firefighter wanting a custom program for them, and that’s not doable. ... It’s really important that they come and work with other firefighters they’d be responding to an emergency with and they practice together, because that’s how we respond to calls, as a team.”
Neither the Beaver Lake nor Skead stations have met the minimum-required number of volunteer firefighters (15) since at least 2012. As such, the Beaver Lake station’s closure and the Skead station’s delayed re-opening won’t affect fire services as the communities have come to know them. Beaver Lake will continue to be served out of Whitefish, and Skead will continue to be served out of Garson.
Although the Beaver Lake station remains slated to close effective June 27, there’s a city council meeting on June 25 at which further direction could be provided. An agenda hasn’t been released for the meeting yet. It is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m., and can be viewed in-person at Tom Davies Square or livestreamed by clicking here.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
