It’s time to say goodbye to Callander’s deputy fire chief, and hello to two others.
The Callander Fire Department is doing some restructuring in the wake of the deputy fire chief’s pending leave. Currently, Jim Warren serves as the town’s deputy fire chief, but as Chief Todd Daley recently informed council, he will be leaving the position this year.
Once gone, the Chief plans to reorganize roles within the department, namely, get rid of the part-time job of the deputy chief and split those duties between two volunteer deputy chiefs.
The plan is “to eliminate the staff position of Deputy Fire Chief, and instead, appoint two Deputy Fire Chiefs from the roster of existing volunteer firefighters, and assign specific roles and responsibilities to ensure the legislative requirements for the Department are successfully met,” Chief Daley detailed.
“As long as our service stays the same, I have no problem with it,” Mayor Robb Noon said.
Deputy Chief Warren has served in the role for 13 years. As per Callander’s Human Resources Policy, when a person leaves a job, staff will assess whether that position should be modified, replaced, or removed.
After researching similar-sized municipalities and fire departments, the decision was made to eliminate the staff position at 15 hours per week and delegate those roles and responsibilities among two existing volunteers.
Specifically, the tasks will be split into two realms – prevention and operation. One will focus on increasing public education and supporting fire prevention opportunities, while the other deputy will focus more on operational readiness. Each would be responsible for taking turns replacing the Chief in his absence, while training, or during vacation.
Chief Daley noted the department will try this out for a year and see how it goes.
“The proposed model is effective in other municipalities our size and offers benefits to the municipality,” Chief Daly explained to council. “With two deputy fire chiefs, specific duties can be assigned and made their focus. Two deputy fire chiefs also provide greater flexibility for scheduling coverage when the fire chief is unavailable.”
David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
