CORNWALL, Ontario – Nearly three-quarters of the entire Cornwall Fire Service roster includes personnel who live outside the city, according to a document provided to Seaway News.
Even fire chief Pierre Voisine, who has been on the job for about a year and half, resides out of the city. Voisine, who said in an interview his house is for sale and he is planning a move closer to Cornwall, has his address listed as Rockland – more than 80 km from here on the banks of the Ottawa River.
Some Cornwall firefighters don’t even live in this province. Two members of the service reside in Quebec, including one in St. Catherine (south of Montreal) and another in Gatineau.
On top of that Seaway News has learned that there are members of the Cornwall Fire Service who belong to the volunteer fire departments in the communities in which they live.
None of this is illegal. Despite court challenges no municipality has won the right to tell an employee where they can live, said Cornwall human resources manager Geoff Clarke, who added the city does not keep records on the addresses of its staff for comparative reasons.
And to be fair other municipal departments including police, public works and administration have their fair share of individuals who live outside Cornwall’s boundaries, including out of province.
But questions are starting to circulate about how effectively a city can administer an emergency department, like the fire service, when a number of individuals live in outlying districts.
“I don’t really know,” said Mayor Leslie O’Shaughnessy. “Certainly it’s never been brought up to me before as being an issue. I do believe if the chief is finding it an issue, then certainly it should be brought forward to council to possibly look for other ways to manage.
“The thing is we have no right to tell people where to live as a municipality.
“It does create hurdles, (but) whether it impacts our service is something I would have to hear from the chief for me to make a determination.”
And the message from the chief is loud and clear: we have no problems in Cornwall.
“Not at all. We have a system where we call guys back,” he said. “Fire is all about initial response. Very rarely do we need more than what we have at the onset of the incident. But we make the decision early in the incident to call back however many bodies they need.
“And it works. In fact it works so well there seems to be a bit of an uproar that mutual aid was called for like the first time ever.”
A source provided the list of fire personnel, and their addresses, to Seaway News as a direct result of an incident two weeks ago when the Cornwall Fire Service activated its mutual aid agreement with South Stormont. About a dozen outside people were brought in to give respite to city firefighters battling the flames at the Ontario Hockey Academy (OHA).
At the time the city service was having difficulty reaching Cornwall firefighters because of a problematic communication system.
But one city councillor who has been vocal in his opinions about the fire service, has concerns.
“When you have to call 48 people to get eight in…the response time is not there,” said Coun. Andre Rivette. “They should be within 15 or 20 minutes for a response time.
“The chief should be setting an example.”
And while the mayor suggested the city’s hands are tied when it comes to municipal employees and where they reside, he defended the fire chief – who will soon be living closer to Cornwall (if not in it) when his move is complete.
“We hired the best man (Voisine) qualified to do the job,” said O’Shaughnessy. “Remembering the chief doesn’t fight fires. He has his role of managing the fire department. And when you take a step back you can look at that as an eight to 4:30 job.
“They have people on staff, or whatever, who are accessible at all times and available to do it.”
But what about ensuring there are enough firefighters available who are actually in the trenches dousing flames during an emergency?
“It’s never been an issue getting people in before,” said the mayor. “The most recent fire (at the Ontario Hockey Academy)…that was one instance out of how many years and I’ve never heard it being an issue in years past.”
To be sure the vast majority of the 48 individuals listed on the fire roster who live outside city limits are a relatively short drive away in communities like Williamstown, Long Sault and Ingleside. One could certainly draw the conclusion that they would respond more quickly to an emergency in Cornwall than other members of the city service who live in far-off places like Ottawa, Alfred and Maxville.
Seaway News has determined of the 48 fire personnel who live outside Cornwall, just eight are more than 30 minutes drive from the city.
The Cornwall Professional Firefighters Association takes a similar position to the mayor and chief and suggests that having most of its members living outside city limits is not a problem, despite the mutual aid call that resulted from the OHA blaze.
“Ninety nine per cent of the time we just handle the (fires) ourselves,” said association president Jason Crites.
But even the union is not in favour of its own members being volunteer firefighters in the communities in which they live. Seaway News does not have specific numbers on just how many firefighters are on the Cornwall roster, while also volunteering elsewhere in places like Long Sault (for example).
But Crites said the practice, known as “two-hatting”, is a no-no as far as the union is concerned.
“The union has a position that if you’re a professional firefighter and you’re working in a department (governed) by a mutual aid agreement, you’re not to do it,” he said, but added there are no laws that prohibit such activity which Crites sees as a two-fold issue. “It’s kind of been a long legal battle. It’s been taken to court…it’s ugly and nobody really wants to get into that fight.
“The view there is you are robbing (other) people of…employment. (And) the issue with the mutual aid thing is it becomes counting that resource twice. There’s just a bit of a logistical problem there, if you want to call it that. You’re limiting that resource.”
The fire chief, though, takes a different approach to the issue.
“For us it has never been an issue. That’s a membership thing.,” said Voisine. “When the members are away and they’re not on company time, if you will, what they do is their business.”
