WHEREAS the Emergency Management and Fire Safety Branch advises that municipalities are not required to provide rescue/extrication services within their boundaries but does advise that municipalities should have a plan in place on how to deal with a rescue/extrication incident if it occurs;

WHEREAS municipalities are not responsible for providing rescue/extrication services to the provincial highways that are within their boundaries but 911 dispatch will dispatch whoever the municipality has identified as the responding agency within their boundary;

WHEREAS this can prove costly to both municipalities and fire departments that must pay for and provide the equipment and manpower for these services as well as the cost where the SGI rate does not cover the entire cost of a call;

WHEREAS many of the calls in a rural municipality would be the result of accidents on provincial highways which may or may not involve ratepayers of the responding municipality;

BE IT RESOLVED that SARM lobby the Provincial Government to negotiate agreements directly with local fire departments for providing rescue/extrication services to their provincial highways.

View the response from the Ministry of Government Relations