Saskatoon Fire Service

The Saskatoon Fire Service does not have its own smoke and fire training simulator and it would be a high priority of mine to change this as Mayor. I do realize this conversation is going on within the City, but it is two years down the road and they are still just talking about this important topic instead of actually making a plan and engaging the resources required.

While serving in the Canadian Wildlife Service, I had numerous experiences fighting very large wildfires at the Last Mountain Lake Bird Sanctuary near Simpson SK. with basically 5 minutes of actual training. It was incredibly reckless on the part of Environment Canada and the Canadian Wildlife Service at that time. The local managers relied on young men light on actual fire knowledge who also lacked the proper fear.

A year later, I was amazed at the detailed fire training that the Canadian Navy put me through at the Damage Control and Firefighting School at CFB Esquimalt in Victoria, BC. Basically, they use a heavily safety controlled active fire situation to push you to realize how severe the situation will be in such a setting while having the best of safety controls to protect your life during the training. That was back in the summer of 1985. I am motivated to give at least a small subset of that training facility for our own fire teams in the current 2020 world.

Real training situations are the best way to both protect the lives of the firefighters but also the victims needing the best performance from fire teams to save them. Firefighters well prepared for a situation are also in the best position to expedite a rescue, for example.

The City Administration seems able to find large sums of money for endless things it deems worthy so I feel that this type of advancement should have some airspace in budget discussions at City Hall.

We should once again have the Saskatoon Fire and Protective Services answer directly to City Council like the Saskatoon Police Service already does, instead of answering to the City General Manager.

It is my experience that the current City Administration has put the Saskatoon Fire Service at unfair risk due to incompetence or extreme arrogance on the part of other City officials not personally at risk for their own poor behavior. My goal is to have the fire department given more independence so they can report directly back to City Council on all matters relating to the safety of the city. To be able to speak up when City Administration puts their teams at needless risk due to poor operational decisions from other departments within the City. I do not believe this is currently possible or allowed as the City organization is presently structured.