Bashaw Council: Council ponders offering wildland fire service

The Town of Bashaw council will ponder a request for a specialized firefighting service. A presentation was made to council at their Oct. 16 regular meeting of council.

In a phone call to the ECA Review Oct. 23 Town Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Theresa Fuller stated councillors began their meeting with a presentation by the Alberta Emergency Management Agency’s Dean Clark, a regional technical advisor for Public Safety & Emergency Services. Clark appeared before council to present on wildland fire responses.

Essentially, wildland fire responses apply to unplanned fires that burn quickly in natural areas such as grasslands or forests.

Urban firefighting equipment and techniques may not be as effective against these types of fires and with drought conditions facing Alberta over the past few years wildland firefighting has been much talked about.

The CAO noted the presentation was spearheaded by the Bashaw Fire Dept., and stemmed from a previous meeting where council requested more information on wildfire response, including the possibility that, if this service was offered, firefighters and equipment could respond to emergencies in other municipalities.

She added that one of the biggest barriers for councillors developing such a wildland firefighting ability would be spreading the local fire department too thin in the event an emergency occurs in or near Bashaw.

The CAO stated another barrier would be equipment, as wildland fire response requires its own equipment, especially a vehicle: such a vehicle is sometimes referred to as a “bush buggy” or rapid response unit that’s capable of taking firefighters across rough terrain.

Fuller stated earlier this year the Town of Bashaw looked into the feasibility of buying a wildland fire unit through collaboration with Camrose County; the CAO stated that Camrose County did in fact acquire such a vehicle but can’t be used for a Bashaw program since it is county property.

The CAO noted Clark’s presentation was extremely detailed but councillors didn’t make a decision and accepted it only for information. She added that the subject of wildland fire response will come back to a future meeting.

Huge improvement

Fuller noted that Coun. Cindy Orom asked to discuss the town’s regular water reconciliation report, listing things like daily water use and total water loss due to things like leaks.

Town staff noted “percentages are stable, which is fantastic.”

The report noted that total water loss in January of 2024 was 5,064 metres cubed, while by September that number was reduced to 868; as Bashaw, like virtually all municipalities, pays for water by the metre cubed that illustrates a major savings.

The CAO noted the town currently sits at 21 per cent variance which is considered fantastic, even taking into account a water line break the town coped with earlier this year.

During discussion it was noted efforts to find and seal an ongoing water leak in Bashaw paid dividends.

Joint use agreement

In the event a new school is built in Bashaw, councillors approved a major agreement with Battle River School Division (BRSD).

The CAO noted the joint use agreement between the Town of Bashaw and BRSD was approved; Fuller noted there was one minor change made to wording in a section pertaining to the agreement’s future renewal.

She further stated this agreement would likely come into play if a new school is built in Bashaw.

Closed session

Councillors moved into “closed session” at the end of the meeting to discuss a number of issues, including an offer to purchase a lot, intermunicipal collaboration framework and confidential evaluation of personnel.

Fuller confirmed several resolutions were passed after council left closed session and re-entered the public meeting.

The first was to reject an offer to purchase lot 9 block 48 plan 8020160.

The second resolution was to accept an offer of $20,000 for lot 12 block 48 plan 8020160.

The third resolution was to generate a letter from Town of Bashaw Mayor Rob McDonald to Camrose County initiating the dispute process from the intermunicipal collaboration framework agreement; the CAO noted reasons for the dispute included fire department services and recent cuts to the county’s FCSS funding.

Stu Salkeld
Local Journalism Initiative reporter
ECA Review

About the author

Stu Salkeld

Stu Salkeld, who has upwards of 28 years of experience in the Alberta community newspaper industry, is now covering councils and other news in the Stettler region and has experience working in the area as well.

He has joined the ECA Review as a Local Journalism Initiative Journalist.

Stu earned his two-year diploma in print journalism from SAIT in Calgary from 1993 to ’95 and was raised in Oyen, Alta., one of the communities within the ECA Review’s coverage area.