The city's new fire master plan will recommend council consider relocating two fire stations over the next decade to accommodate future growth in addition to hiring eight more firefighters next year to maintain current minimum on-duty staffing levels for an eight minute fire response.
The new plan includes 15 council recommendations and 38 operational recommendations based around five strategic priorities. Cost analysis and budget recommendations are not part of the plan and would be considered annually as part of the budget process.
The last fire master plan was completed in July 2013. The typical master plan lifecycle is between eight and 10 years.
Suzanne Charbonneau-Dent, from Dillon Consulting Limited, and the city's acting fire chief Damond Jamieson walked council through the updated Master Fire and Emergency Services plan during a workshop Monday.
Council learned the biggest impacts on taxpayers during budget considerations will come from fire suppression division and an in-depth analysis of the city's aging fire stations and performance standards.
Charbonneau-Dent said trends demonstrated by Ontario fire services show a need for the city to increase staffing levels, which, based on the city's size, is set at a minimum standard of 27 firefighters on duty at any given time.
That standard focuses on a measure that gets 16 firefighter to the scene of a moderate risk emergency within eight minutes of getting the call.
Charbonneau-Dent said the need to add more firefighters to the city's roster to achieve that minimum is due mainly to an increase in long-term leaves resulting from situations involving WSIB requirements, post traumatic stress disorders, and presumptive legislation around various diseases common among firefighters. Standard workplace accommodations for sick time, parental leaves, and vacations also play a role.
Since the last master plan was done in 2013, the ratio of staff firefighters to on-staff firefighters has increased from a 1.25 ratio to 1.33.
She said many municipalities in Ontario are now hiring 22 firefighters to staff an apparatus with a minimum of four on-duty staff 24/7, 365 days a year.
The current minimum standard in Cambridge only covers one per cent of the city's area and 3 per cent of historical incidents, she said.
A recommendation to staff Station 1 with four firefighters would require hiring 11 new firefighters.
A recommendation to add a pumper staffed with a crew of four firefighters to a renovated Station 4 would require hiring 22 firefighters, she said.
"The location of the station has the greatest influence on getting those results," Charbonneau-Dent said, noting future growth and future road improvements were taken into account in the modeling exercise to determine where best to locate future stations.
Several of the city's fire stations are in need of some form of repair, renovation or replacement, she said.
Fire-Station 2 in Hespeler is among them and while the location is optimal, the current property, attached to the old town hall and Heritage Centre, isn't due to restrictions related to its size and a heritage designation.
Any plan to relocate it should be within 500 metres of the existing location, she said.
Relocating Station 3 somewhere near the intersection of Bishop Street North and Duke Street is also recommended.
"It's our understanding that this station cannot remain in its existing location," she said.
A long-term plan recommends adding a seventh fire station near Hespeler and Avenue roads to accommodate growth and intensification in that part of the city.
Any plan to relocate stations to areas positioned for growth should support a construction design that accommodates two front-run apparatus and two fire suppression crews, she said.
In addition to those major expenses, the updated master plan includes a recommendation to consider building a new, standalone training facility to provide an indoor space for "training evolutions."
It would require adding two additional daytime platoon training officers.
Charbonneau-Dent said specialized training exercises are necessary for emergencies that are of low call frequency but a high cost response, and include situations like structural collapse, trench rescue and confined space rescues.
The CFD hopes to discuss a plan with Kitchener and Waterloo to determine the capacity of each department to take on one of those specialized rescues.
Coun. Corey Kimpson wanted to know if a training facility that's shared with other regional municipalities is an option.
Charbonneau-Dent said the challenge there is that most training is conducted while on duty and would require on-duty staff to leave Cambridge or vice versa to complete the training. That would lead to delayed response times or off-duty training requirements that would necessitate overtime pay.
Among the operational recommendations in the plan is a request to hire three new full time administrative positions, including an admin assistant, an IT position to support the department, and a new fire inspector.
Other recommendations include relocating the mechanical division workspace and hiring an apprentice mechanic.
The master plan also proposes developing a comprehensive fire prevention policy and standard operating guidelines for CFD response to encampment fires and hoarding incidents, as well as educating those residents on fire and life safety.
Jamieson explained how a provincially mandated Community Risk Assessment used to create the plan analyzed data to prioritize risk to the public to develop the recommendations in the master plan.
Since the updated master plan has already been a few years in the making, staff went through the CRA with council last fall.
Jamieson described the master plan is a "strategic framework or roadmap" for CFD and council in making decisions to improve fire protective services in Cambridge.
It's "not carved in stone," he said, acknowledging the fact that some recommendations in the plan likely won't happen.
The 2013 master plan included 34 recommendations, 13 of which have been completed, 14 are in progress and some have been dropped altogether, he said.
Priorities, budget constraints, innovative technologies, regulatory changes and future data all play into changes to the master plan which in 2013 said Station 5 on Main and Franklin would need to be doubled, he said.
Data since then has revealed a shift that shows Station 4 on St. Andrews street is the new area of focus.
"We had to take a detour on the roadmap because the data told us we had to do that," Jamieson said.
