WHEREAS fire departments are dispatched by 911 to attend motor vehicle accidents; and

WHEREAS these calls require the fire truck, rescue unit including Jaws of Life and 5 to 7 firefighters to attend the scene; and

WHEREAS at the time of the call fire departments are not aware of what equipment might be needed at the scene; and

WHEREAS the time involved in these calls is two to three hours by the time the equipment and firefighters are back in the Fire Hall; and

WHEREAS equipment rates at $500 per hour and 5 to 7 Firefighters at $20 per hour for a 3 hour call, the cost is approximately $2,000; and

WHEREAS SGI has a rate for a “non-productive call” at $495 per hour and rate of $825 per hour for a “productive call”; and

WHEREAS many of these calls are deemed “non-productive” by SGI and pay the claim accordingly; and

WHEREAS whether the calls are “productive” or “non-productive”, the cost to the Fire Department is the same;

BE IT RESOLVED that SARM lobby the Provincial Government and SGI to deem all calls to attend motor vehicle accidents as productive calls.

Response from Honourable Tim McMillan, Minister of Saskatchewan Government Insurance:
SGI, through discussions with SARM, the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association, the Saskatchewan Association of Fire Chiefs and the Saskatchewan Volunteer Firefighters’ Association, developed a policy to set the level of compensation paid for productive andnon-productive calls when a fire department is called to a MVA. The policy defines a productive
call as one where fire suppression and/or vehicle extrication services are provided. Whereas, a non-productive call does not require these services to be provided.

As you may be aware, the rate for a productive call in 2010 was $635 per hour and the rate for a non-productive call was $480 per hour. At the end of 2010, a review of the rates was completed, and SGI felt the rates paid should be comparable to rates paid for similar services in neighbouring provinces. As a result, the rates were amended to $800 per hour for productive calls and $480 per hour for non-productive calls with yearly increases based on Saskatchewan’s average Consumer Price Index for the previous year. At this time, SGI will not be amending the policy with respect to firefighting.