Sudbury council delays decision on fire hall consolidation

At Sudbury city council Tuesday evening, the issue of amalgamating some of the city’s 24 fire and paramedic stations was deferred to mid-January.

The staff report recommended cutting the number of stations from 24 to 13 but with no job losses. Councillors voted 11-2 to defer the matter.

To repair or replace some of the aging sites would cost $40 million.

Ward 7 Coun. Natalie Labbeé suggested deferring the decision so the newly elected councillor would have time to look into the matter and talk to constituents.

City staff now have to come up with an engagement plan to present at council in January.

“Hopefully at that time we will be able to further engage council in the report and what it means for the service and the community,” said deputy fire chief Jesse Oshell

“It will be a tight timeline with only a month or so but we will work hard with our team to get that done and then if more time is required we can further engage them then. I do believe it is enough time to at least bring back the initial request of council and respond back to their needs.”

Sudbury Mayor Paul Lefebvre said councillors want more time to study the issue before making any decisions.

“For some councillors this was the first time and so after only three weeks of being on the job, there’s a lot to contemplate, and certainly it affects different regions of the city,” Lefebvre said.

He said the next step is to really study the costs.

“What is the cost of renovating or modernizing what we got right now versus what is the cost of these new proposals that is before us,” Lefebvre said.

“I believe that is the next question for council when we come back in the New Year. We need to compare apples to apples and right now we don’t have that information.”

One councillor not in favour of the deferral was Ward 6 Coun. René Lapierre, who was a paramedic in the city for more than 20 years.

Lapierre said the decision should have been dealt with at council Tuesday night.

“I was comfortable to make that decision,” he said.

“Our vehicles and our equipment that we have is outgrowing the size of the stations that are 65 years old and 60 years old … The physical space that was built 50 years ago no longer meets our equipment. And same with fire trucks.”

The matter will return to city council Jan. 24.