Prince Edward County’s aging fleet of fire trucks is putting pressure on the community as the cost to replace them looms, but Councillor Brad Nieman thinks the trucks may be retiring too soon.
Councillor Nieman put in a motion at Tuesday’s council meeting to request the provincial government and the Fire Underwriters Survey reevaluate the required replacement schedules for firetrucks.
In order to comply with insurance requirements, fire trucks are required to be replaced after they reach 20 years old. The guidelines are set by the Fire Underwriters Survey and they place the same requirements on smaller rural communities as they do on larger, more urban municipalities.
The request asks for rural communities to be given different standards than urban communities. A letter will be sent to the Fire Underwriters Survey while copies of the motion are being sent to Premier Doug Ford, Minister of Labour Monte McNaughton, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Paul Calandra, the Eastern Ontario Wardens’ Caucus, Federation of Canadian Municipalities, and all other municipalities in Ontario.
Councillor Nieman says the cost of constantly replacing equipment that can still be used is a burden on the community’s budget.
“A lot of the trucks that we’ve seen seem to be in good shape, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of kilometres on them,” said Councillor Nieman. “So as long as they pass all the inspections, the trucks would still be able to go past that 20 years.”
The motion passed after brief debate.
