Hastings County Warden Rodney Cooney, June 28, 2018 (Photo: Mary Thomas/Quinte News)
Hastings County is calling on the provincial government to pay the entire cost of training volunteer firefighters.
In a special resolution at its meeting Thursday, county council said new regulations will create a financial hardship for the volunteers who may be required to take time off their employment to complete up to eight weeks of training.
The resolution says this makes it difficult to recruit volunteers.
Warden Rodney Cooney told Quinte News some small communities will just not have firefighters at all since the $8,000 cost of training each firefighter is unsustainable for small municipalities.
He told council Loyalist College now provides some training and some of it in the evenings.
Cooney says he hopes the new provincial government will “back off” on the regulations.
