16 Dec 2024 Council meeting Safety

Mutual Aid Agreement

Motion
That Council authorize the execution of a new Mutual Aid Agreement with the Cranberry Improvement District, Mountain Improvement District, District of Lantzville, North Cedar Improvement District, and Extension and District Volunteer Fire Department Society, for a five year term.
Minutes, page 12
Sources
Agenda itemCity agenda, whole meeting
Staff reportPage 1
Purpose
The purpose of this report is to obtain Council’s approval for the City of Nanaimo to enter into a new Mutual Aid Agreement (MAA) with the Cranberry Improvement District, Mountain Improvement District, District of Lantzville, North Cedar Improvement District, and, Extension and District Volunteer Fire Department Society.
Staff report, page 1
Staff recommendation
That Council authorize the execution of a new Mutual Aid Agreement with the Cranberry Improvement District, Mountain Improvement District, District of Lantzville, North Cedar Improvement District, and Extension and District Volunteer Fire Department Society, for a five year term.
Staff report, page 1

Questions and answers

Councillor Erin Hemmens
Speaker identificationConfident
Yes

asked
Much, Councilor Hemmens. Thank you. Work of worship and. Thank you, Chief. A question for you. Just a point of curiosity. On page three, you note that if the safety of responding personnel is in question, the officer of the responding party has sole discretion over how directions are given. I'm presuming this is so: say we go to a mutual aid agreement with Cranberry, we're saying we're bringing our people, we're in charge of how our people are deployed. Does that de facto put our department in charge of any mutual aid call? Because we're bringing human resources to
T. Doyle
Speaker identificationConfident
answeredFire Chief
It. Through your worship, Councilor Hemmonds. No, it doesn't. The requesting party is always in charge of the incident, but the responding parties always in charge of their personnel. If that makes sense. So if the incident was here, let's say, tonight, I'm. Actually duty cheap tonight as well. So we would respond the incident. It would be our incident if we requested resources. We are in. Command of all the resources responding. But if they saw something unsafe or they felt uncomfortable, something it's solely their discretion to withdraw their resources, or at least speak to us about that. And we'd probably be able to resolve the concern, but if we weren't, They could unilaterally withdraw their resources. Great.
followed up
Thank you. Good to see this updated 1989. Was a