City boosts firefighting ranks

Fire chief Randy MacDonald says Charlottetown is addressing struggle to recruit volunteers

Charlottetown Fire Chief Randy MacDonald says a recent recruitment campaign has gone a long way to addressing what has become a challenge with some departments across the province — finding volunteers.

At a recent meeting of the council’s protective and emergency services committee, MacDonald reported that the city department’s volunteer recruitment campaign, which began Sept. 20, boosted the ranks by 22 firefighters.

“They’ll be going through a fitness evaluation before moving on to the fire school (in early) January,’’ MacDonald said.

Some volunteer departments in the province, such as O’Leary and Kinkora, say they’re finding a hard time bringing new people in due to concerns involving the COVID-19 pandemic.

Others are experiencing just the opposite, not enough room for individuals interested in serving.

Jason Woodbury, chief of the Miscouche Fire Department, said he has a waiting list of 10 people who want to volunteer and a complete roster of 40 firefighters.

“I certainly feel for the other departments,’’ Woodbury said.

Coun. Kevin Ramsay, a member of the committee, asked MacDonald if the shortage of volunteer firefighters has affected the two districts in Charlottetown.

“We’re good,’’ MacDonald said.

Ramsay then asked the fire chief how many firefighters Charlottetown has. MacDonald replied that the city has 83 firefighters. That’s a combination of career firefighters and volunteers.

The fire chief said he would like to see the city’s firefighting ranks number about 100.

Around the time Sherwood and Parkdale amalgamated with the capital city in 1995, there were 110 firefighters in the Charlottetown area.

NEW FIRE STATION

During the same meeting, Mayor Philip Brown asked MacDonald to update the committee on the status of a proposed third fire station.

The plan is to construct it on Malpeque Road on 4.5 acres of land between the Atlantic Cat dealership and Moore Well and Drilling Inc.

MacDonald initially said questions regarding the timeline would be better put to the architect for the project.

MacDonald did say the floor plans are already drawn up as is plans for the exterior of the building. The architect is currently working on plans for the communication tower.

However, the tower is not

part of the main structure so that led to Brown asking why the city couldn’t move forward with the tendering process now.

“It’s coming up to two years that we’ve been working on this file,’’ Brown said.

MacDonald said they’re hoping to have something for council to consider by January, which would include a cost estimate.

The last cost estimate had the project pegged at $4.5 million, a price tag MacDonald and Peter Kelly, the city’s chief administrative officer, said is still realistic.