WHEREAS under Sub Section 8(1) of The Prairie and Forest Fires Act, 1982 a rural municipality is responsible to provide fire fighting services to control and extinguish a fire that originated or is burning in the rural municipality;

WHEREAS costs for fire fighting services may be charged to the property owner regardless of who requested the service;

WHEREAS fire fighting services along a provincial highway right-of-way would most often be requested through a 911 call from a passing motorist; and

WHEREAS municipal taxpayers should not be responsible to fund fire fighting service costs through property taxes for fires occurring in the provincial highway right-of-way;

BE IT RESOLVED that SARM lobby the Provincial Government to cover fire fighting service costs that are incurred by the municipality for service provided when a fire occurs within a provincial highway right-of-way.

Response from the Honourable Jim Reiter, Minister of Highways and Infrastructure:

In regards to Resolution No. 23-09M, MHI has been working on a provincial policy for processing claims for municipal fire suppression services. The policy has been structured similar to SGI’s policy for Fire Suppression which has a set rate for compensation and requires a claim be submitted detailing services provided. This policy is in the final draft stages and is under review by our Crown Solicitor who has or will be contacting SARM’s solicitor to clarify the details in legislation. Once our solicitor has completed his review, the Ministry will undertake consultation with stakeholders, including SARM prior to finalizing the policy.   It is our intention to have the new policy in effect in the early spring of 2010.