It appears Town of Grimsby did not have a burning desire to share volunteer fire services with Town of Lincoln despite embarking on a shared services pilot project in 2021.
“After the last municipal election, I didn’t see that support (for shared services), I saw strong support to discontinue it from the Grimsby side of things,” said Niagara West fire Chief Greg Hudson.
Last month the Grimsby/Lincoln joint fire services advisory committee approved a recommendation that the two municipalities abandon the shared arrangement and return to having separate firefighting services.
The report, prepared by Lincoln chief administrative officer Mike Kirkopolous and Grimsby CAO Sarah Kim, was based on a consultant’s review of the initiative.
It said most Grimsby and Lincoln firefighters and many town councillors saw little benefit to the arrangement and few residents in both communities were aware of it.
The report also said the dissolution option enables both municipalities to refocus on independent, community-specific service delivery, and strengthen volunteer and, where necessary, part-time/full-time staffing to meet increasing growth demands and implement organizational changes to improve leadership and communication while maintaining collaboration in targeted areas such as joint training, equipment standardization, procurement efficiencies and automatic aid agreements.
Both town councils are expected to give final approval to the dissolution on Dec. 3.
For Hudson, there were signs Grimsby wasn’t going to proceed with the initiative in the past year or so, prior to the consultant’s report.
“It seems to me I was less involved (with Grimsby’s corporate) leadership team,” Hudson said. “I would see fewer invitations to go to meetings at the corporate level in Grimsby.”
Fire chiefs are typically part of a municipality’s leadership team reporting to the CAO or city manager.
Hudson, who regularly attends team meetings in Lincoln, said there were at least two Grimsby upper management meetings in the past year that he was not invited to attend.
“I (thought) this is odd,” Hudson said. “When I asked about it, I didn’t get a definitive answer about it.”
While the shared services plan was deemed a pilot project, Hudson said the initiative never proceeded very far.
“It really wasn’t a pilot in the true sense of the word where we were actually combining two departments to see if it would work,” said Hudson, who added a consultant’s report that would have set standards for service integration was delayed. “We just phased a little bit of it; we left the fire suppression piece of it (out).”
While the end of the Grimsby/Lincoln initiative appears on the horizon, Hudson said he believes shared fire services can work.
“I think all parties need to be fully committed and come to the table with the view of let’s make this work.”
Hudson, who plans to retire next September, said fire services in Grimsby and Lincoln will need to address how to serve those growing municipalities.
That could include adding full-time firefighters.
“I see that in the future for both municipalities,” Hudson said.
Asked for comment, Kim said the fire services matter remains under discussion at Town of Grimsby.
“We’ll be glad to provide additional comment once a decision has been made,” Kim said.
Kirkopoulos said the shared fire services pilot provided an important opportunity to explore new ways of delivering fire protection and emergency response more efficiently across the two communities.
“While the decision was made not to continue the shared model, the project demonstrated the real potential for collaboration in areas such as training, standardized operating procedures and shared expertise,” Kirkopoulos said.
“I believe the concept could have worked under the right circumstances, but successful long-term integration requires sustained alignment in governance structures, budgeting priorities and organizational culture. Those factors take time and mutual commitment to fully develop.”