Councillors mull rescue fee at local waterfalls
Jackson opposes idea, wants more discussion
You fall, you pay.
Could a user fee charged to nuisance risk-takers make Hamilton’s accidentprone waterfalls safer?
And should it be used to recoup costs the city incurs when firefighters orchestrate high-angle rope rescues? That’s being looked into. “It’s an item we’re working on and we need to have some meetings with staff, emergency services and police,” Coun. Robert Pasuta told The Spectator.
The idea was floated at a brainstorming session about waterfall safety with fire, police and paramedic officials in August.
Pasuta — whose ward includes tiny Greensville, which is overrun by visitors to Webster and Tew’s Falls — questions whether a fee would go far in recouping costs or deter risky behaviour.
Coun. Judi Partridge, meanwhile, supports some sort of fee to curb mishaps and reimburse taxpayers for some of the rescues, which, she believes, hover around $5,000 a pop.
If signs around sites warn visitors about sizeable penalties, “then perhaps people would think twice” about going where they shouldn’t. “I think it’s something we need to have a conversation about and it needs to be explored,” Partridge said.
Coun. Tom Jackson, however, calls the rescue fee idea a “nonstarter.” He said he worries more restrictive and punitive measures could tarnish the city’s changing image as an outdoor recreation destination.
Jackson also questions how officials would decide who to penalize: Could they distinguish between a “daredevil” and someone who simply trips and falls?
“I don’t want to reach a point where I’m going to legislate behaviour,” he said.
Jackson, who organized the August session, said he hopes to reconvene with staff sometime this fall to look at more data and ideas.
“I think we can still do more,” he said, noting viewing platforms, as well as directional and warning signs are already at Albion Falls, which is in his Mountain ward.
Alongside Jackson’s initiative, the fire department is conducting a review of rope rescue calls over the past five years and looking at what other departments do.
The results are to be shared with council during user-fee-forservice talks in 2017, spokesperson Jasmine Graham said.
As visitors to Hamilton waterfalls increase, so do, apparently, the spills.
There have been at least 22 rope rescue calls this year, which eclipses 2015’s figure of 19 for the entire year.
On Sunday afternoon, firefighters performed two rope rescues within five hours of each other, first at Webster’s and then at Buttermilk Falls near Albion.
Fees for nuisance false alarms and nonresident automobile crashes are typical among fire departments. Burlington, for example, charges $450 per truck per hour in such cases.
On average, five trucks are deployed to respond to roughly two or three rope rescues a year, usually at Mount Nemo Conservation Area, says Burlington Platoon Chief Dennis Hayes. “It’s manpower-hungry.”
But the department considers those rescues part of its overall service, Hayes said.
Do more waterfall mishaps mean greater liability for municipalities?
Hamilton’s legal department says the city is “not generally responsible for injuries in natural areas caused by persons who don’t exercise reasonable care,” don’t obey signs and put themselves at risk. “City trails do not require users to climb rock walls or extreme slopes, negotiate waterfalls, or swim. Anyone choosing those activities or who chooses to approach the edge of a waterfall or the escarpment is taking the risk of injury and does so at their own risk,” Ron Sabo, assistant city solicitor, told The Spectator.