Moncton Fire Chief Conrad Landry. Photo submitted
Moncton Fire Chief Conrad Landry says he’s hoping a meeting between his city’s insurance company and the one that serves Tantramar will resolve what he sees as misunderstandings that have so far blocked an agreement on emergency mutual aid during major disasters among all 18 municipalities in southeastern New Brunswick.
“Their insurance company is going to talk to our insurance expert in the city to clarify any misunderstanding,” Landry said yesterday during a telephone interview.
He was referring to Tantramar’s concern that it would be required to cover the cost if, for example, one of Moncton’s fire trucks were damaged in an accident while responding to an emergency call in Sackville.
During Monday’s Tantramar council meeting, Mayor Andrew Black said the town needed to limit its own risk when other fire departments respond to our request for aid.
“If something were to happen to an $860,000 fire truck that would be on us,” Black said. “It would be an awful lot of money.”
But Moncton’s fire chief says that would not be the case under the Emergency Mutual Aid Agreement that 17 municipalities have signed so far, all except Tantramar.
“The agreement specifically says that we need to send the vehicle with a driver, with an operator, because Tantramar may not know how to operate one of Moncton’s vehicles,” Landry says.
“So whenever there’s a vehicle that’s sent out…it’s sent out with a driver, our driver and our insurance. It’s our insurance that’s going to cover that driver and it’s going to cover that vehicle.”
Landry acknowledged that if other pieces of equipment are damaged, the municipality requesting emergency aid would be required to cover that cost, but not any costs for injured personnel or damaged vehicles.
Tantramar Treasurer Michael Beal says that when municipal staff sent the Emergency Mutual Aid Agreement to the town’s insurance company and its lawyer, both expressed concern about the potential for liability costs and that’s why staff is recommending against signing the agreement.
“There is always the possibility for Council to sign it the way it is,” Beal said in an e-mail to Warktimes. “That is one of the options in the report to Council, but is not staff’s recommendation.”
Meantime, Fire Chief Landry says it has taken two years to get the agreement in place, which he sees as a logical extension of the mutual aid agreements among Moncton, Dieppe and Riverview.
He says that with the potential for more hurricanes and other catastrophic events linked to climate change, it’s important for the cities, towns and rural communities in the region to have an agreement in place that clarifies who is responsible for what when they help each other.
“So if you look in the future, we would have potentially 18 municipalities that would have a mutual aid agreement to share resources and a very similar plan so that when we help each other, we’re all talking the same language,” he says.
“So I think it’s huge that we have some written guidelines in case there’s disaster or in case there’s a large emergency that our neighbours can help each other,” he adds.
To read, Tantramar Fire Chief Craig Bowser’s presentation to council on Monday and the proposed Emergency Mutual Aid Agreement, click here.
