Whereas the Office of the Fire Commissioner has, over the past two years, put more requirements in place for fire departments in British Columbia; And whereas the cost and time commitment of these increased training, risk management, and records management requirements has negatively impacted fire fighter recruitment and has resulted in increased local government taxation: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM be directed to work with the Office of the Fire Commissioner to explore provincial funding options to help support British Columbia fire departments in meeting the standards now required by that Office.
Ministry of Public Safety Solicitor General The minimum fire training standard established in September 2014 and amended in May 2015 provided the specific training required for the level of fire services that communities choose to provide. When this standard was established and then amended, the requirements became less onerous. A consequence of the new standard was a heightened awareness of pre-existing requirements. Although training and its related evaluations are the responsibility of the fire department, since 2014 the Office of the Fire Commissioner has developed a training curriculum, including all of the materials related to interior and exterior firefighting operations levels of service. The training curriculum has been made available at no charge to fire departments to facilitate the option of in-house training in order to minimize related costs. The Office of the Fire Commissioner has provided financial resources in partnership with the Fire Chiefs Association of British Columbia to provide regional Train-the-Trainer courses throughout the province related to team leader positions. In addition, the Office of the Fire Commissioner has partnered with the Local Government Management Association, through on-going regional workshops, to provide training to chief administrative officers and fire chiefs including the provision of information management, record-keeping and training tools. In 2017, the Office of the Fire Commissioner also provided funds to the Fire Chiefs Association of British Columbia, including a grant of 100,000 to provide regional Train the trainer courses for fire departments to safely deal with accidents involving electric and hybrid powered vehicles. The Fire Chiefs Association of British Columbia has also received 1,000,000 to develop a governance framework which will be used to manage funding requests from Road Rescue providers and provide equipment and training.