AGENDA ITEM / DISCUSSION / ACTION / RESPONSIBILITY / TARGET DATE
MASTER FIRE PLANNING COMMITTEE
MINUTES
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
0900 Hours

Tillsonburg Fire Station

Participants: / Mayor Stephen Molnar / David Morris / Darrell Eddington / Bob Parsons
Brett Lavier / Wesley Hutchison / Rick Finnemore / Glen Harrop
Paul Michiels / Jeffrey Dick / Elaine Weger / Richard Hayes
Vanessa Devolin

AGENDA ITEM

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DISCUSSION/ACTION

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RESPONSIBILITY

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TARGET ACTION

1. Call to Order / 9:05 am
2. Approval of Minutes of the Meeting, January 17, 2006 /

Mayor Molnar recommended we give all members a hard copy of the Corporation of the Town of Tillsonburg of Tillsonburg Strategic Plan and provide Internet links to the Community Strategic Plan

/

Vanessa Devolin

/ By February 21st.
3. Election of a Chairperson / Fire Chief Bob Parsons - Asked for nominations or any member who would like to offer their services.
Glen Harrop – volunteered for the position on Chairperson
Moved by: David Morris
Seconded by: Brett Lavier, that nominations be closed.

Carried

4. Strategic Planning Results (1999/2000) / Fire Chief Parsons provided an overview of a questionnaire that was circulated throughout the community in 1999 by the former Strategic Planning Committee. Approximately 200 participants completed questionnaires from various sectors of the community including, Business, Industry, Institutional, Residential and Volunteer Firefighters. Survey results were compiled at that time and a Draft document was prepared for a report to council, but did not go forward at that time. Chief Parsons distributed the survey, the survey results and the draft report to the Master Fire Plan committee for their review and consideration.
David Morris, who participated in the original Strategic Plan process, felt the survey’s results are still relevant.
Glen Harrop, who participated in the original Strategic Plan process, felt the survey captured a good sampling of the community. He stated, “we especially received had really good feedback from the businesses and industrial community”.
Mayor Molnar agreed that the material is still relevant from the first survey. He would like to see a similar or more advanced version come out in the future. He feels that it will strengthen the cause of the project because the community is involved in the process. It will reinforce the work that the group is doing.
Rick Finnemore stated that the questions from the survey came from the Public Fire Safety Guidelines (PFSG), provided by the Office of the Fire Marshal. We need to use this information so as to include the community in this current process and to educate the public on the services that are provided by their fire department, as well as the ones that are not, so they are not misinformed. It will be good public relations down the road also.
Richard Hayes suggested the members on this committee could also complete the survey and add this to the data already collected. We could also consider taking a component of the survey and take it back out into the community and compare the data.
Following this discussion, the Master Fire Plan Committee felt that the questionnaires captured an appropriate cross-section of the community and that it was still current and useable data. A work team will consider the merits of updating the survey and sampling the community again as part of this Master Fire Plan process.
Fire Chief Parsons passed the chair to Glen Harrop
5. Discussion of Letter of Understanding (Terms of Reference) / Jeffrey Dick reviewed and explained a document he provided labeled as Terms or Reference, which will be changed to a “Letter of Understanding” between the Office of the Fire Marshal and the Corporation of the Town of Tillsonburg. He explained the various roles and responsibilities of the Office of the Fire Marshal, and the responsibilities that would be undertaken by the Town of Tillsonburg of Tillsonburg.
Fire Chief Parsons asked if there would be any enforcement from his office if the MFP committee fell behind the planned timelines for benchmarks and milestones.
Jeffrey Dick stated that the Office of the Fire Marshal would not use enforcement as a Master Fire Plan is not required to be completed by the Municipality, however the Office would continue to monitor progression of the process as monitoring is an ongoing responsibility by the Fire Marshal. We will assess any reasons for falling behind and evaluate our resources to determine if we can extend our services to accommodate your situation. We have other Roles and Responsibilities, as well we must consider. The committee needs to be aware that this process of Master Fire Planning is still relatively new to the OFM as well and that we will continue to learn along with you. We just want to make sure you do not fall too far behind your schedule and as events unfold we will keep in constant communication.
Mayor Molnar stated this is a process about the accountability being developed by willing partners. We need to identify timeframes as a group and work together to meet the timeframes. If things were not found in proper order OFM would be monitoring the Fire Departments 365 days of the year anyways.
Jeffrey Dick agreed and stated, should our Office determine there is something wrong, for example the municipality is not meeting it’s responsibilities under the FPPA or OH&SA, or any other applicable Legislation we will stop and address this immediately with the council. Any problems would be corrected and then the Master Fire Planning committee could proceed with its work.
Jeffrey went on to state that the Letter of Understanding is an agreement between the OFM and the Municipality. / Jeffrey Dick to prepare a Letter of Understanding and forward to Fire Chief Parsons. / February 21st

Moved by: David Morris, and

Seconded by: Paul Michiels, that the Master Fire Plan accept the Terms outlined in the presentation by Mr. Jeffrey Dick and that a Letter of Understanding will be included in a Report to Council by the Fire Chief
Carried / Fire Chief Parsons to include the Letter of Understanding in his Report to Council. / February 27th
5 a. Draft Terms of Reference and Planning Context provided by the Office of the Fire Marshal / Rick Finnemore reviewed in detail, the Draft document outlining the planning context for developing a Master Fire Plan. Rick explained that the document should serve as a guideline for the committee to follow.
5 b. Draft Terms of Reference and Planning Context developed by the Tillsonburg Fire Service, originally presented to Council, December 12, 2005 /

Fire Chief Parsons suggested that a work team be assigned to develop a Terms of Reference and Planning Context using the Office of the Fire Marshal Guideline in combination with the draft document originally prepared by the Tillsonburg Fire Service as reference material, and that a timeline be included complete with measurable benchmarks and milestones. He felt that before this work is assigned the committee should consider the first 3 or 4 steps in the 10-Step Process so as to better understand the framework of the Planning Context.

6. “ 10-Step Process” Checklist / Fire Chief Bob Parsons led a discussion concerning the first two steps of the 10-step process. He demonstrated a few tools that the work teams have available at their disposal to help us work through the process of developing the Master Fire Plan. He advised that Vanessa Devolin would circulate internet links to these tools. /

Vanessa Devolin

/ With circulation of the minutes of this meeting, or by February 21st.
Jeffrey Dick presented the components of Step 3, Risk Assessment. He stated that we need to ask the question “From a Fire Safety perspective, what can go wrong in this municipality and whom does it affect?”
Fire Chief Parsons asked if we could add non-fire related risks to our plan also?
Jeffrey Dick replied yes because a lot fire calls are non-fire related. For example several fire departments respond to medical emergencies and motor vehicle accidents all the time.
Elaine Weger asked, How do you know what buildings have a twenty percent chance of fire?
Jeffrey Dick replied that we look at historical data and incident reports to analyze each building.
Fire Chief Parsons stated that Tillsonburg has a current and approved Simplified Risk Assessment and asked if a template exists for developing a Comprehensive Risk Assessment?
Rick Finnemore replied that there is not one at this time.
Fire Chief Parsons asked Mr. Dick, how much time it would take to complete Comprehensive Risk Assessment required by Step 3.
Jeffrey Dick stated that it depends on many factors. The availability of data you have on hand or need to acquire statistics concerning your fire loss, building stock, resistance to fire, fire protection systems, status of Retrofit and existence of Fire Safety Plans and more.
Wes Hutchison stated that we would also need to review our industrial sector and find out what chemicals we are going to be dealing with and also how they are being transported into Tillsonburg.
Richard Hayes indicated that we have been discussing in our Emergency Planning Committee on having a Dangerous Goods Route through the town.
Fire Chief Bob Parsons asked if Step 3 the right place to future needs measured against current capabilities.
Jeffrey Dick replied, Yes this is the right place to be putting this all in place.
Brett Lavier asked if we need to break Tillsonburg down the Risk Assessment into Industrial, Commercial and residential sectors?
Rick Finnemore replied, Yes you should to make it less confusing.
Mayor Molnar stated that these are very important points to be talking about at the beginning of this project. Different things that happen along the way will trigger changes in our plan, but we will have at least made ourselves aware of our options.
Rick Finnemore explained that the MFP committee would produce a Report, which will give Council guidelines to follow for Risk Control measures. There will be a great deal of flexibility with respect to options and time, to implement any changes required to reduce Risks.
Fire Chief Parsons recommended to Chairman Harrop that we establish some work teams to get this committee moving forward. He suggested that work teams and Project Leaders should be established for each of the steps in the 10-step process, and in some larger steps such as Risk Assessment, there may need to establish several sub-teams.
Glen Harrop agreed and asked committee members to offer their services to be Work Team Leaders and for these Leaders to second members to work with them. Chairman Harrop asked if Chief Parsons would assume the function of overall Project Coordinator. Fire Chief Bob Parsons accepts that position. / Fire Chief Parsons to serve as 10-Step Project Coordinator. / Ongoing through 10-Step Process
Work Teams were established to complete Readiness Checklists as follows:
Establish Planning Context - Step 1
/ Richard Hayes will assume responsibility as Project leader and will develop the Terms of reference and Planning Context acquiring feedback from all members via email. / Richard Hayes / Before Council meeting of February 27th.
Establish Work Teams
Step 2 / Brett Lavier will be the Project Leader, assisted by David Morris and Bob Parsons /

Brett Lavier

/ Before MFP meeting March 14th.
Analyze Risk
Step 3 / This Step will have 3 Work Teams
Risk Profile
/
Elaine Weger, will be the Project Leader to collect information for the purposes of subsequent Evaluation for fire related and non-fire related Risk in Tillsonburg, assisted by Mayor Molnar.
/ Elaine Weger / Establish Framework for Comprehensive Risk Assessment only by MFP meeting, March 14th.
Economic Circumstances
/ Darrell Eddington will be the Project Leader to collect information for the purpose of assessing Economic Circumstances in Tillsonburg, assisted by Paul Michiels / Darrell Eddington / Collect Economic Data only by MFP meeting, March 14th.
Current Capabilities
/ Wes Hutchison will be the Project Leader to collect information concerning the existing capabilities of the Fire Department, assisted by Glen Harrop / Wes Hutchison / Collect Information only, for Existing Capability of the Fire Service by MFP meeting, March 14th.
7. Round Table / No questions or concerns
8. Next Meeting / Tuesday March 14, 2006 at 9 am

9 Adjournment

/ 12:15 pm
Moved by: David Morris, and
Seconded by: Mayor Molnar, that the meeting be adjourned.
Carried
Internet Links to Additional Resources Discussed at the Meeting of February 14, 2006

“Community Strategic Plan”

http://new.town.tillsonburg.on.ca/site/1287/default.aspx
OFM Websitehttp://www.ofm.gov.on.ca/english/default.asp
"Shaping Fire Safe Communities"http://www.ofmsfsc.ca/Default.aspx?width=1024&height=737
"Public Fire Safety Guidelines"http://www.ofm.gov.on.ca/english/FireProtection/munguide/pfsgidx.asp