Sault Ste. Marie Firefighters Association President Marty Kenopic reacts to a decision to move forward with a report recommending a reallocation of Fire Service positions to Emergency Medical Services at Monday’s City Council meeting.

After more than three hours of presentations, questions and comments, City Council voted 8 to 3 on Monday night in favour of accepting a report from Fire Chief Mike Figliola. The report suggests a net reduction of front line fire staff by 15 percent, with a reallocation of as many as 20 positions to Emergency Medical Services over the next three years. This would including 8 more paramedics and 4 paramedic supervisors. Sault Ste. Marie Firefighters Association President Marty Kenopic is not impressed — he feels an assessment done by a third party should have been done prior to council’s acceptance. This would allow everyone affected to know what the risks are resulting from the reduction in Fire staff…

In addition to the report highlights, council also got a presentation from Unifor 1359 Vice-President Steve Olsen. He feels a few improvements have been made since the new Fire Chief arrived last year, but the number of paramedics had been the same between 2002 and 2014. Right now, it takes between 5 and 6 minutes for Sault Fire Services to sends out between 10 and 17 firefighters to a fire. The number of staff varies depending on the scope of that blaze. The suggested changes came as a ‘100 percent surprise’ to Kenopic. He suggested that there was hardly any communication between Fire Services and his group about the issue. But Kenopic hopes this can be resolved so the plan can be improved…

Councillors did bring up concerns over what would result in the future from any reductions in fire staff — less equipment being used or perhaps an amalgamation of existing fire halls. Despite those questions, Sault Mayor Christian Provenzano felt council should focus on the issue at hand in Figliola’s report, rather than worry about any issues that might come out of the proposed changes in Fire Services. In presenting his report, Figliola says it’s all about addressing the risk with fewer fires and a greater demand for paramedics with the number of calls for the latter doubling over the last decade, along with a lack of available ambulances. The reduction in Fire Services would reflect a decline in fires — 80 percent — over the last 30 years. Kenopic says if the report is followed would result in exposing the fire department and the public to a number of risks…

When asked about the next step is now, Kenopic answered his group will regroup and that he is open to speak to the chief about his report — but no specific timeline was announced.