Despite an effort by two city council members to save it, the Beaver Lake emergency services station is still slated to close this week.
Ward 7 Coun. Natalie Labbée and Ward 2 Coun. Eric Benoit’s resolution to keep the station open until at least Sept. 15, 2025 received only five votes of support against seven nays during Tuesday night’s city council meeting.
As such, city staff’s direction to close the station this week, amalgamate services with the Waters station and negotiate an automatic aid agreement with Nairn Centre, remains in place.
A group of Beaver Lake-area residents attended Tuesday’s meeting to show support for their community’s emergency services station.
“There’s an awful lot of hours that went into this disappointment,” community advocate Ralph Prentice told Sudbury.com after the meeting while a group of his dejected neighbours chatted in frustrated tones in the lobby of Tom Davies Square.
“I’m not very pleased with the vote. I thought we had more councillors on our side than we got.”
Had the city allowed them to keep the station open for another year, Prentice said he’s confident they would have been able to bring in more volunteer firefighters to make the station viable.
As it stands, he said Tuesday night’s meeting appears to be their last kick of the can to keep the station open — a point Benoit also shared with Sudbury.com while expressing his own disappointment regarding the vote’s outcome.
Originally slated to close alongside the Skead station as part of a broader emergency services infrastructure revitalization plan, city council voted on June 27, 2023, to keep the Beaver Lake station open for another year, “with a requirement to meet the average number of volunteers for all stations within one year.”
The Skead station was to be repaired and re-opened immediately.
Earlier this month, City Fire and Paramedic Services Chief Joseph Nicholls told local media the average number of volunteers for all stations was 11. The minimum number of volunteer firefighters most insurers require for an area to be considered protected by its station is 15, of whom at least five must routinely respond to calls.
Beaver Lake fell short of this minimum requirement, with community advocates counting two existing firefighters, three recruits in training and two new recruit applicants, for a total of seven.
During Tuesday night’s meeting Nicholls reiterated that he stands behind his initial recommendation to have the Beaver Lake station close and amalgamate services with Waters.
“Trying to set up a system where we have firefighters going to calls understaffed is a concern to us,” he said, adding that consolidated halls have more members available to respond to calls as a group.
“There would be more people on responding vehicles, whether it be the first or second, so they are not alone going out on calls.”
There are only a couple of members in Beaver Lake who regularly respond to calls, and sometimes only one, he said, clarifying that other stations, including Waters, are already responding to calls in the Beaver Lake area.
“That isn’t a response,” Nicholls said. “It’s just an additional risk this corporation is taking on.”
Although insurance underwriters cite a membership of 15 volunteer firefighters as the magic number, Nicholls clarified that a minimum of 20-25 is required “to make it truly viable.”
During the past several years, an average of 12 to 14 calls per year have been responded to in the Beaver Lake area, Deputy Chief Jesse Oshell told city council, clarifying that the Waters and Beaver Lake station work together and respond to approximately 30 to 40 calls per year in their shared area.
In the past several months, the majority of calls have been motor vehicle incidents and carbon monoxide calls, plus two brush fires.
Keeping the Beaver Lake station open for another year would cost approximately $30,000, plus the purchase of a $150,000 support vehicle the city had previously not considered, Nicholls told city council. In the longer term, he said keeping the station open would cost millions of dollars in renovations to the building, which was constructed in 1977.
Area residents hosted a media event earlier this month advocating for the Beaver Lake station to remain open, after which Labbée joined Ward 2 Coun. Eric Benoit in pledging action.
Although Benoit’s ward includes Beaver Lake, he was not on city council when last year’s vote to keep the Beaver Lake station open for another year was held. Only members on the prevailing side of a vote are eligible to raise it for reconsideration, which a motion to keep the building open would be considered, so Labbée stepped in.
After receiving a two-third city council vote to debate the matter, the following is how city council voted on Labbée’s motion to keep the Beaver Lake station open until at least Sept. 15, 2025:
Ward 1 Coun. Mark Signoretti: No
Ward 2 Coun. Eric Benoit: Yes
Ward 3 Coun. Michel Brabant: Yes
Ward 4 Coun. Pauline Fortin: Yes
Ward 5 Coun. Mike Parent: Yes
Ward 6 Coun. René Lapierre: N/A
Ward 7 Coun. Natalie Labbée: Yes
Ward 8 Coun. Al Sizer: No
Ward 9 Coun. Deb McIntosh: No
Ward 10 Coun. Fern Cormier: No
Ward 11 Coun. Bill Leduc: No
Ward 12 Coun. Joscelyne Landry-Altmann: No
Mayor Paul Lefebvre: No
During Tuesday’s meeting, Labbée also said that she’d be tabling a motion at the next city council meeting to receive a timeline on the Skead station’s reopening. The Skead building has been repaired, but doesn’t have the equipment and apparatus needed for it to become a functional fire hall.
Although the Beaver Lake station is slated to close permanently this week, Nicholls clarified that area residents won’t notice a change in service, since they’ve already been served by other area stations for the past several years and their properties are considered unprotected by fire services according to most insurance underwriters.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
