Why you might end up calling Kelowna or Surrey for fire emergency

Several Greater Victoria municipalities are exploring options for fire dispatch — including some as far away as Kelowna or Surrey — after receiving notices of substantial rate increases.

Others are suggesting a new regional fire dispatch could be housed in the Capital Regional District 911 emergency dispatch centre being built in Saanich.

The $16-million facility is scheduled to be operational in 2019.

Oak Bay, Esquimalt, Central Saanich, North Saanich, Sidney and Colwood all contract with Saanich for their fire dispatch.

But Saanich, which in 2015 undertook an independent financial review of its dispatch services, estimates that it is subsidizing agencies in the range of 29 to 56 per cent.

It’s looking to recoup those costs — and that means substantial increases to client municipalities.

In a letter to Esquimalt, Saanich chief administrative officer Paul Thorkelsson says Saanich has a “keen interest in maintaining professional and collegial relationships” with municipal clients and would understand if some may choose to “test the market” for dispatch services.

However, he says, the district also has a fiscal responsibility to its residents.

Esquimalt, which has been informed it’s being “subsidized” to the tune of $96,000 a year for fire dispatch, is asking for a six-month contract extension to look at options, said Mayor Barb Desjardins.

“The numbers are doubling or tripling to us continuing with Saanich. There are many [municipalities] that are concerned about this,” Desjardins said.

“Saanich has invested a lot of money into their facilities, but that was their investment. What we’re doing is just ensuring that there isn’t a better model out there.”

Desjardins said there are a number of options, including the possibility of contracting with Langford, Campbell River, Surrey or Kelowna.

“I think the strongest point is that there’s a sense that this should be regional and there’s a sense that it should be apolitical,” she said.

“So the CRD idea would assist in that, [as] it is separate from any one municipality.”

Saanich and Victoria last month announced an agreement in principle to create a “regional” fire dispatch. The Vancouver Island Emergency Dispatch Corporation would be jointly owned by the municipalities and begin operating in 2019.

Oak Bay Mayor Nils Jensen said the region should look for a “wider CRD-based solution” instead.

“It’s been the information that I’ve received over the last couple of years that the [911] centre that we’re building will be large enough to house fire dispatch also,” Jensen said.

Oak Bay’s fire dispatch contract with Saanich doesn’t expire for about a year, but the municipality has been told a significant rate increase is pending, he said.

He has prepared a notice of motion calling on the CRD board to consider the feasibility of co-locating 911 with police and fire dispatch in the new purpose-built centre.

It’s a move fully supported by View Royal Mayor David Screech.

“That, to me, is a no-brainer,” Screech said. “We’re building a building on Commerce Circle for regional 911 and it only makes sense to me that we would put a regional fire dispatch in there.”

Under Saanich’s new rate structure, View Royal would be looking at a doubling of fire dispatch fees over the next five years to about $120,000 a year from $60,000, Screech said.

He doesn’t understand why View Royal, as an existing client of Saanich, wasn’t asked to partner in its new corporation.

“I think it’s fair to say it’s cause a certain amount of concern from different councils, for sure,” Screech said.

Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps said the city thought all of Saanich’s municipal clients were on board, and only recently found out that is not the case.

The future of the Saanich-Victoria partnership is uncertain, she said. The municipalities have not made a commitment to each other and are “simply in the process of exploration.”

Helps said she is among those bringing forward the CRD motion to explore integrating police and fire dispatch.

“The goal is regional dispatch,” she said. “So if the Victoria-Saanich partnership is going to be fragmenting rather than uniting, then maybe it’s not the direction to go.”