Members of the Port Hawkesbury Volunteer Fire Department have given notice to leave the Strait Area Mutual Aid Agreement.
The warden of Richmond Co. says that’s a strong-arm tactic.
The agreement allows firefighters in both Richmond Co. and Port Hawkesbury to respond to emergency calls within the other municipality.
Town officials had provided fire protection services for the nearby Richmond Co. community of Point Tupper, which is largely industrial, through the Port Hawkesbury Volunteer Fire Department.
Municipal councillors rejected a $75,000 fire services contract for 2020-21 from their town counterparts in June; the previous agreement lapsed in July, and they asked members of the Louisdale Volunteer Fire Department to resume responsibility for Point Tupper.
Town officials reduced the amount to the same $50,000 cost as the 2019-20 contract in a second offer in July; municipal councillors again rejected it in August.
After September’s regular municipal council meeting Monday night, Brian Marchand, Richmond Co.’s warden, told The Hawk the cost was too high for the first offer, and they already reached an agreement for fire protection with members of the Louisdale Volunteer Fire Department before they received the second offer.
“At no point now can we go and break the agreement that was made between Richmond (Co.) and the Louisdale Fire Department,” he said. “They helped us out when we needed someone to cover that- now how do we, as a county, go to that department and tell them now ‘No we don’t want you covering it, we’re going to go with Port Hawkesbury’?”
Marchand said they hired a consultant to review fire services in the area, and the consultant’s recommendation was even the lower offer was too high.
He said they still would have accepted that offer if it had come before their agreement with members of the Louisdale Volunteer Fire Department, but they won’t negotiate now.
“For Port Hawkesbury to, all of a sudden, want to come and negotiate at this point, that doesn’t seem right.”
Curtis Doucet, the chief of the Port Hawkesbury Volunteer Fire Department, says they gave notice to leave the Strait Area Mutual Aid Agreement Sept. 25.
He said members voted to extend that until Dec. 25.
