The day after the election of the new mayor in Wickham, in the Center-du-Québec region, the issue of the fire department has surfaced again and they want to make it a priority.
Last week, companies urged the community to cancel the delegation agreement with Drummondville. They found an ally in Luce Daneau, the mayor of Wickham, who made it one of her priorities.
If the Services Agreement does not bring any benefit to the safety of its citizens and does not bring any real savings, the new Mayor of Wickham intends to make every effort to terminate it.
According to the agreement, the cost per citizen for the services is $92; a bill likely to fluctuate around $240,000 annually.
However, one of the clauses provides for additional costs: “If an operation in the Wickham area requires resources from a fire department other than Drummondville, all costs will be borne by the community of Wickham.”
And contrary to what the elected officials claimed before their citizens, the agreement also provides that Wickham is not immune to possible prosecution for failure to comply with the risk coverage plan.
“Wickham agrees to indemnify Drummondville for any amount that it is judged to pay by reason of any act or error.”
The owner of Agrimétal, the new consultant Pascal Houle, has requested an independent expert analysis on the possible response times with this agreement.
He is in no way reassured. It seems that a deployment of eight firefighters in 15 minutes is unlikely.
Drummondville’s deputy general manager wants to reassure and regrets that people are taking advantage of citizens’ sense of security.
Even though Drummondville has no plans for the time being to increase staffing at its two fire stations, despite the addition of the municipalities of Avenir, Saint-Majorique and Wickham, Francis Villeneuve assured that the mutual aid arrangements with the other fire departments in the area allow for sufficient clout and adequate coverage
It will be recalled that some thirty companies have recently applied to Wickham Township for formal notice of termination of the agreement signed at the end of April.