Rising costs and responsibilities are forcing Nipissing Township and Callander to take a serious look at merging their fire departments.
"Small communities, with the expansion of fire services and more requirements by the government, can't afford to go on their own," Nipissing Mayor Tom Piper told BayToday. "That's why we're looking at it. Townships can't afford to continue the services they have unless they start sharing "
Piper says the municipalities will see savings and improved service from the move.
"One of Callander's outlying stations on 654 will be redesignated and so they'll take one fire station out of line and they're going to share our fire station just a couple of kilometres down the highway. We're going to share all our equipment as well as any new purchases we have to make, so instead of a 400 thousand dollar tanker for one of us, it will be a tanker at 200 thousand dollars each."
Both Callander and Nipissing are volunteer departments so there will be no job loss and they already share a fire chief who is a full-time employee.
"It's going to improve service on the 654 corridor because Callander's numbers were low on that end but together we'll be able to put more firemen on-scene in that particular area so it helps Callander and Nipissing.
Piper isn't sure when the merger will be complete, but it's in the Nipissing budget for this year and he's just waiting to see what Callander will do.
"There will be initial startup costs but so far everybody seems to be accepting of it," explained the Mayor.
Piper thinks this kind of thing is inevitable in the future.
"Definitely. We're already sharing the building inspector with Callander and we're looking at deals with Powassan as well. Huntsville and Lake of Bays are doing this, so shared services are definitely going to be the way of the future. Right now we're looking at a shared bylaw officer as well, and who knows what else down the road.
"Callander and Nipissing fire departments have worked together, have trained together, so it just was a logical step."
Callander Mayor Hec Lavigne agrees.
"It's quite evident to me that the squeeze is on. From a funding perspective rural communities, with respect to legislative requirements to ensure that every municipality has a chief building official, fire services, CAO and so on. There's the burden that ABC's (agencies, boards and commissions) have on small communities leaves us with very little to manage our municipality."
But Piper doesn't see this as a precursor of the merging of the municipalities yet.
"There's been no talk of that, but a merger of services, definitely! I would never go out and say the townships are going to merge but I'm sure that's on the government back burner somewhere."
Callander Mayor Hec Lavigne expects a formal announcement in a couple of weeks.
"We're looking at a strategy that will prove up long term in economy of scale but also in terms of purchases of equipment and ways to enhance fire services for both communities."
Lavigne doesn't believe a merger would change residents insurance costs, and may even lower them.
"We're reviewing our options and hopefully come to terms with how we proceed in the very near future. We're down to the nitty-gritty."
