City Council Meeting April 8, 2013 Notes

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To say this council meeting was a royal waste of time would be an understatement. It started promptly at 7:00 pm and in what seemed like an eternity, dragged on until 10:30 pm with perhaps about 30 minutes worth of business taken care of.

It began with an uninspired presentation by VICC head Denise Tacon who arguably has been doing an incredible job under incredibly difficult circumstances. Trying to make a success of the convention business in Nanaimo is arguably an impossible task given the handicap we have with location, location and low number of five star hotel rooms.

With the aid of 20/20 hindsight it would seem that from the get-go hoteliers knew Nanaimo was not the place to build a 5 star hotel if the only basis for success would be the business produced by the VICC. A fact still not grasped by the YES Committee.

Council watchers were then forced to endure an hour and a half presentation under the title of Fire Rescue Department Business Model Synopsis. A study ironically triggered by Councilor Greves who wanted a report of response times. What has actually come forward is a complete revamp on the staffing of fire stations and how to implement firefighters time more productively which would result in considerable saving to the Nanaimo taxpayers.

As could be expected neither Councillor Greves nor Brennan (both heavily funded by unions) were not receptive to any ideas that might gore their favored oxen. In true Nanaimo council fashion after listening to the presentation and all asking questions, rather than agreeing to receive the report, they referred it back to staff to tell them what they think about it. Even staff seemed confused by this one!

Some interesting facts were revealed in the business model synopsis which understandably the IAFF would be opposed to, and likely would prefer not be made public. According to the internal study of firefighters use of time, it was revealed that all firefighters basically have 50% downtime. In other words out of every 10 hours they are on shift for 5 hours they are not busy. The new model proposes to put that time to use in the area of prevention.

Another interesting fact was that most structure fires are handled by stations #1 & #2 and in fact only 1.7% of the incidents attended to by firefighters are structure fires. The average firefighter costs $115,000/yr. in wages and benefits and 64% of their call outs are attending to medical emergencies which currently see a firetruck and four men attend regardless of the emergency and in spite of the fact that at least one BC Ambulance has also been dispatched.

I am sure if Greves and Brennan have their way, this business model will never see the light of day and the possible efficiencies that could be contained in the business model will be scuttled, making sure the interests of the union are well served.

This council meeting resembled watching a really bad movie, all the time hoping something would happen that would redeem the time. Unfortunately that never happened and that was 3 1/2 hours I'll just never get back.