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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFD-005-01 . Meeting: Date: Report #: Subject: ~ THE CORPORATION OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF CLARINGTON REPORT GENERAL PURPOSE AND ADMINISTRATION COMMITT~ # rJhGE' Res. #0flfl- )>;2 --0 I APRIL 23, 2001 FD-05-0 1 10.12.6 By-law # EMERGENCY SERVICES STAFFING RECOMMENDATIONS: It is respectfully recommended that the General Purpose and Administration Committee recommend to Council: THAT report FD-05-01 be received for budget consideration. BACKGROUND On February 19,2001, Peter Guiry from the Ontario Fire Marshal's Office made a presentation to Committee with respect to fire prevention activities, including a Simplified Risk Assessment. In Mr. Guiry's presentation he mentioned the requirement of the Fire Protection and Prevention Act (FPP A) as well as the Guidelines on Municipal Fire Protection. The regulations put the onus on Municipalities to undertake certain proactive fire prevention and public safety issues. The Fire Protection and Prevention Act, 1997 (FPPA) introduced a new framework. Municipalities are responsible for funding and delivering services and the Province is responsible for providing advice, guidance and support to Municipalities. The vision of the FPP A is that every resident of Ontario will receive an appropriate level of fire protection. The FPP A defined new duties, powers and responsibilities for the Office of the Fire Marshal (OFM). Subsection 2(7) provides the Fire Marshal with the power to review and monitor municipal fire protection systems to ensure that they meet the minimum requirements of the FPPA. Continued.. ... 701 2 Municipalities also have new responsibilities under the FPP A. For the first time they are required to deliver public education programs and some components of fire prevention. The FPP A specifies in Section 2 that "every Municipality shall establish a program in the Municipality which must include public education with respect to fire safety and certain components of fire prevention and provide such other fire protective services as it determines may be necessary in accordance with its needs and circumstances". Under the Guidelines on Municipal Fire Protection, Section 04-04-03, Selection of Appropriate Fire Protection Programs, established by the Fire Marshal's Office, it lays out its acceptable model. This model includes: . A simplified Risk Assessment. . A smoke alarm program. . Fire Safety education materials distribution to residents/occupants. . Inspection upon complaint or when requested to assist with code compliance (including necessary code enforcement). Simplified Community Risk Assessment The FPP A requires a Municipality to conduct inspections upon complaint or request. From a resource management perspective, it is important to identify an activity level and area with regard to the performance of fire inspections beyond the complaint/request requirements. In other words, to perform inspections in a proactive manner, especially in the high risk areas such as hotels/motels, nursing homes, hospitals and high-risk occupancies. As was mentioned by Mr. Guiry in his presentation, the Province transferred the responsibility of hotels/motels and nursing homes to the local Municipality in 2000. This transfer included seven hotels/motels, three nursing homes and one hospital. Given the occupancies involved and the serious concerns related to occupant safety, especially with the nursing homes, senior staff put in place a requirement for the prevention staff to inspect these facilities annually. These inspections require an estimated 134 hours to conduct. The Risk Assessment looked at various areas, one of which is fire death facts. The presentation spoke about six deaths between 1995 and 1999 and this fact is a little misleading. Although all six were as a result of asphyxia, two of these deaths were as a result of a criminal act and not accidental. If these two were not included, Clarington's five year average death rate would be 12.96, making it 7% above the Provincial average instead of60%. We do not feel any fire deaths are acceptable. As reported in 1999 and 2000 there were no fire deaths in Clarington. Proper inspection programs and public education programs are geared to eliminate any fire related deaths, not only in Clarington, but everywhere. This is the main goal of an active program of public education and proactive fire prevention programs. Continued.. ... 702 3 In dealing with building stock it should be noted that these are current numbers. Given the rate of growth in the Municipality these numbers will continue to grow for the foreseeable future. Percentages of fires by property show that we are very close in relation to the provincial averages. In some areas we are below, such as industrial, commercial and institutional. This is, in part, a result of the level of present building stock for these types of occupancies and may adjust, in the future, as the commercial/industrial ratio increases in the Municipality. When reviewing any statistics related to a Provincial average such as the aforementioned numbers and the residential numbers, the make up of the Municipality must be considered. It should be noted, when looking at fire losses, all fires are considered in these numbers. Both, fires related to accidental fires as well as those related to criminal activities, such as arson. In his presentation, Mr. Guiry mentioned the "spike" in commercial fires and noted the major loss related to the Newcastle Lumber fire. What was not noted in relation to this fire was the fact that it was arson, as have been several large fires over the last 10 to 15 years in Clarington, including the Orono apartment fire, Brookdale Tree Nursery, the aforementioned lumberyard, as well as several smaller fires. Fire losses, in any form, are not acceptable, however, those of an accidental nature may be preventable. A strong fire prevention and public education program is geared to this purpose. No amount of prevention and public education can prevent arson if someone is determined to destroy something using fire. The only deterrent to arson is to catch and prosecute those involved and in that way deter offenders. Clarington Emergency Services participates in the TAPP-C program. The goal of this program is to educate fire starters at an early age, about the effects oftheir actions and prevent them from causing fire loss and injury as a result of their actions. Smoke Alarm Programs A good working smoke alarm is the best protection a resident can have. A properly functioning alarm system is the best protection in an industrial/commercial or mercantile occupancy. The suppression staff, in conjunction with the prevention division, has undertaken a program called Alarm for Life. In this program firefighters, while on duty, visit homes in the Municipality and check for smoke detectors. In 1997 the Fire Code was modified and requires that every residential occupancy must have a working smoke detector. If staff find a residence that either does not have a smoke detector or one that is not working, they will install one free of charge to the resident. They will also replace worn batteries where found. This program has been operating in the main urban areas of Bowmanville and Courtice and is scheduled to expand to other areas within the Municipality. As of January 18, 2001,1,500 homes have been inspected with 93% having working smoke alarms. Continued.. ... 703 4 While smoke alanns address the residential aspect, only properly conducted fire prevention inspections can insure that alann systems are working in commercial/industrial sites and in assembly occupancies. Working in a reactive mode allows for follow up if a complaint is received or a series of false alanns are received. In these cases, prevention staff will respond and may require alann certification tests to be undertaken. A more proactive inspection program will allow for alann system testing to be undertaken before system problems occur. Fire Safety Education Fire safety public education programs are the greatest tools the fire service has to prevent fires and fire death and injury related to accidental fires. The Clarington staff built and utilizes the fire safety house in public education. There are also several other educational tools being used such as, Older & Wiser, Learn not to Bum, and Risk Watch to mention three. These are used, on request, from various groups. The suppression crews also get involved in school programs, when requested to. As you can appreciate, with the continuous increase in emergency responses, related to Municipal growth, the time the suppression crews have to contribute to these programs is being reduced. Inspection on Complaint or Request The major motivations behind any prevention program and public education program are to: . Reduce or eliminate loss oflife due to fire. . Reduce fires and losses due to fires. . Increase the levels of public safety. The present prevention staff responds to complaints or requests. They do so in a prioritized manner, considering the most urgent requests ahead of any more routine requests. As was mentioned in the presentation, this accounts for the majority of their time leaving little for public education or proactive inspection programs. The suppression crews attempt to assist prevention, when possible. They will, as part of their preplanning of a mercantile or commercial site, do a very basic inspection and bring any concerns to the prevention staff. The prevention staff will consider this as a request and follow up as time permits. This could be seen as being somewhat proactive, in a minimal sense. However, with the priorities on the Alann for Life program and as previously mentioned, the increase in emergency responses, suppression crew availability for such inspections is limited. Continued.. ... 704 5 COMMENTS The presentation by Mr. Guiry raised the issue of staffing levels. It was also mentioned, during discussions, about the present staffing levels and how they were reached. To recap, staff made a presentation to Council in 1999 during a Staff/Council retreat. At the time Council was advised that the department had only one prevention staff. As a result Council approved the immediate hiring of one inspector. With the passing of the FPP A and the requirements to do a review of the prevention programs and the Simplified Risk Assessment, prevention staff made a request of the Ontario Fire Marshal's office to assist in preparing a study for presentation to Council. The findings of the study have outlined areas that require action. The main recommendations that came out ofthe presentation were the increase in fire prevention inspectors and possibly a public educator, in accordance with the Fire Underwriters recommendations. To meet the recommended level of 1:15,000 it would require Council to hire two to three staff and to address the public education, an additional staff member. At present, Divisional Chief Hesson who is responsible for its operation, oversees the activities of the fire prevention division. The division has one Fire Prevention Officer and one Fire Inspector. As the report mentioned 75% of the Fire Prevention Officer's time is dedicated to plan review and public education, the remainder is used for reactive inspections. The Fire Inspector's time is 90% reacting to complaints and requests and 10% to public education, such as the Race Against Drugs program (RAD). This does not leave much time to be proactive and with the departments Standard Operating Procedure addressing the annual inspection of Hotels/Motels and Nursing Homes, no time is left for standard proactive inspections. If Council wishes to move to a more proactive inspection program it will require the hiring of additional staff. The Clarington Emergency Services sees a need to move to a more proactive prevention program given the present population levels and the future growth forecasts for the Municipality. In an attempt to address present concerns and to move forward in a sustainable manner, staff would propose the following time frame. To address present needs: The Divisional Chief will assist with complaints and requests for inspections for the immediate future. This should relieve some of the pressure on the inspection staff and will free up a limited amount of time the Fire Prevention Officer and Fire Inspector may use for proactive inspections. It should be noted that this available time would be limited until assistance from new staff is available. Continued. .... 705 6 The Divisional Chief will also be required to review the manner in which staff utilizes their time to ensure optimum efficiency. The Fire Prevention Officer, whose direction for turning around plans for review is presently three weeks, work with the planning department to reach a more attainable time frame. This could allow more time for inspections to be conducted. As staff comes on board and time becomes available, a more rigid program of plans review can be put in place to improve on the turnover of plans being reviewed. If the Underwriter's recommendations were to be followed it would require two additional inspectors right away and this would bring the ratio to 1: 18,000, better than the Regional average. An additional inspector would be required at a point in the future as population grows. After discussions with the Director of Planning and Development, it was suggested that a recommended target population would fall outside of the present Council mandate and will therefore be dealt with at an appropriate time. Staff have reviewed the recommendations for an increase in staffing levels for the Fire PreventionlPublic Education Division. To be proactive would require the hiring of two additional staff immediately. This would, of course, result in a substantial budget impact. (See Chart "Budget Impact"). As an alternative, staff recommended one inspector be hired in September and one inspector hired January 1, 2002. POSITION Fire Prevention Inspector Fire Prevention Officer Fire Prevention Inspector Vehicle TOTAL BUDGET IMPACT 2001 Sept. 1/01 $15.493 $ $2,173 $ 2002 2003 $17.666 $ 46.527 6.527 $46,527 $25,000 124,581 $51.966 $6.527 $51,966 $110.459 All figures are based on 1999 Collective Agreement, subject to change once negotiations are complete Increase in salary due to progression through the ranks, from 4th Class to 1st Class, as per Collective Agreement. After reviewing the staff recommendations with the Chief Administrative Officer concerns were raised with the budgetary impact. The Chief Administrative Officer has pointed out that the recommendation of one prevention staff for 15,000 population is not binding on Municipal Council, which has the sole authority to set service standard for Clarington. He has therefore recommended that the staffing increases in Fire Prevention be addressed in a more gradual and sustainable manner after taking into account the various needs and priorities ofthe Municipality. His recommendation is to defer the second inspector until January 2003 from January 2002. (See chart below). Continued.. ... 706 7 FIRE PREVENTION STAFF BUDGET IMPACT 2001 Budget 2002 2003 POSITION (4 months) Increase from Budget Increase from Budget 2001 2002 Existing Prevention Officer - Salary Adjust. $2,173 $4,354 $6,527 $0 $6,527 Prevention Inspector to be hired in 2001 $15,493 $31,034 $46.527 $0 $46,527 Vehicle N/A $25,000 $25,000 N/A N/A Prevention Inspector to be hired In 2003 N/A N/A N/A $46,527 $46,527 Vehicle N/A N/A N/A $27,000 $27,000 TOTAL $17,666 $60,388 $78.054 $73,527 $126,581 This will provide for an inspector to population ratio as shown in the "Fire Prevention Staffin Clarington as Proposed" chart below. YEAR 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 POPULATION STAFF 73,000 2 76,000 3 79,000 3 82,000 4 Staffing level to be determined by new Council RATIO 1:37,000 1:25,333 1:26,333 1:20,500 The Chief Administrative Officer pointed out that the current average of fire prevention staff to population ratio for the Durham lakeshore municipalities is presently at 1:20,000 and Clarington will be on target to meet the Durham average in year 2003. The Chief Administrative Officer's recommendations for hiring staff in the Fire Prevention Division have been built into the proposed budget for Council consideration. Training/Technical Support Officer There have also been concerns raised by the Divisional Chief responsible for training that it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with the development and delivery of required training programs to both full and part-time firefighters. These training requirements include the practical firefighting exercises and now the operation and use of the Crisys Software System. As discussed with Council, the Crisys System is a graphical dispatch software program, which consists of various programs. These programs include geographical dispatch and pre-planning software, fire prevention records system, duty roster software, inventory tracking program, equipment maintenance module and training module. The Crisys System was developed to enable modem fire departments to operate in a highly efficient and effective manner. Continued.. ... 707 8 After discussions with the Chief Administrative Officer it was agreed that staff would put a request forward to Council for the creation of a new position, that of a Training/Technical Support Officer. The successful candidate would be required to provide assistance to the Divisional Chief in preparing and delivering training programs to all department staff. Documentation of this training from an administrative and Ministry of Labour perspective is essential and the successful candidate will assist in developing and maintaining accurate records. Implementation of the outstanding sections of the Crisys Software System (which includes all components except the dispatch and pre-planning software) and ongoing maintenance and support ofthe system will also fall under this position's responsibilities. As was mentioned in the presentation to Council December 1, 2000 the Crisys Software System still requires a substantial amount of implementation. Once this stage has been completed, in approximately one to two years, ongoing maintenance ofthe system is required, as well as the training of present and future staff in its use. The successful candidate will also be responsible for liaising with Crisys to ensure all up-dates and improvements are installed. The budget impacts are shown in the chart below and will result in the following staff changes. The new position will hold the equivalent rank of Captain and be covered under the Collective Agreement. The filling ofthis position from within will result in upward movement through the ranks ending with the hiring of a new dispatcher at the entry level. POSITION 2001 BUDGET IMPACT 2002 2003 Captain (Training/Tech. Support Officer) (4 mos.) $19,787 $59,361 $59,361 Dispatcher (Training period) (2 mos.) $ 5,530 0 0 TOTAL $25,317 $59,361 $59,361 All fignres are based on 1999 Collective Agreement, subject to change once negotiations are complete Budgetary impact of Dispatch position is for training time only. CONCLUSION For the 2001 Current Budget, an amount of $45,000 has been added to the salary account of the Fire Department Budget which, upon Council's approval, will add one Fire Prevention Inspector and one Training/Technical Support Officer. For 2002 and 2003, Council is requested to commit a budgetary increase of $94,432 and $73,527 respectively. The foregoing does not reflect the recommendation of the Fire Chiefto move up the hiring of one Fire Prevention Inspector from 2003 to 2002. Continued.. ... 708 . . 9 Should Council agree with the budgetary commitments in the preceding paragraph, no action would be required and the recommendations contained in Report FD 05-01 should be amended to be received for information. Respectfully submitted, Michael G. Creigh Fire Chief. MC/sr Reviewed by, o rv..V2~"-.)~ Franklin Wu, Chief Administrative Officer. 709