Two former employees of the Municipality of Pontiac (MoP) fire department have told THE EQUITY that they are concerned with the state of the fire department.

Réjean Bérubé, a firefighter who resigned from the MoP fire department last February, says he is concerned about the working conditions and safety of his former colleagues.

Bérubé, who currently is a full-time firefighter in Gatineau and instructor in the Pre-Service Firefighter Education and Training school at Algonquin College, said he resigned from his volunteer position at the MoP fire department after he . . .

was blocked from being promoted to instructing officer of the department by the MoP council.

Bérubé believes that he was prevented from getting the promotion because of an interpersonal dispute between the director of the MoP fire department and members of the council.

He said the position of instruction officer is needed in the MoP, as many firefighters currently employed in the MoP are in the process of getting their credentials and the department itself needs new officers, both of which requires a lot more training.

Bérubé says that the interpersonal dispute that prevented his promotion is just one instance of the MoP fire department being denied things it needs to function properly by the MoP municipal council.

Bérubé alleged problems in the department range from the lack of officers able to supervise rookie firefighters, the lack of ladders long enough to reach two story buildings, outdated equipment like self-contained breathing apparatuses (SCBAs), lack of emergency mayday procedures for when firefighters find themselves in an emergency situation, lack of radio reception in certain parts of their jurisdiction and lack of modern equipment, among other issues.

Bérubé stated that all these problems are causing a serious drop in morale among MoP firefighters, which is dangerous in itself.

“I’d say 80 per cent of the fire department wants to leave,” said Bérubé. “Then you’ll never get enough people to reapply. And you’ll never have enough time to train them”.

Bérubé acknowledges that most of the deficiencies he sees in the MoP fire department aren’t necessarily illegal or not in conformity with the Fire Safety Act of Quebec. However, he feels that the safety of the firefighters and the effectiveness of the fire department are still in jeopardy, even if on paper they appear to be meeting their obligations.

He did go as far to say that he believes a complaint needs to be lodged with the Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST) in order to have the working conditions of the MoP fire department investigated. He also wants the MRC des Collines to ensure that the MoP is abiding by the Schéma de couverture de risques, which is an agreement that lays out mutual aid agreements between neighboring fire departments.

The Schéma de couverture de risques lays out the benchmarks for each municipality to ensure that firefighters can respond to calls at any time of the week. If a municipality is unable to perform those tasks itself, then the Schéma de couverture de risques ensures that neighboring municipalities will pick up the slack if needed, according to a source that has been training firefighters for 20 years who spoke with THE EQUITY on the condition of anonymity.

Bérubé says that, as of now, the MoP fire department is dependent on neighboring municipalities due to lack of trained personnel and equipment, and rarely has the ability to reciprocate by aiding other municipalities.

“They’re just surviving because nothing major is happening,” said Bérubé about the MoP fire department.

Bérubé blames the alleged dysfunction of the MoP fire department on the new municipal council that was elected in October and said they have repeatedly prevented the current fire chief from making improvements.

Another employee of the MoP fire department who recently resigned, Cheryl Hardwick, agrees with this sentiment. Hardwick worked at the MoP fire department between September 2020 and April 2022 as the safety officer and resigned over what she viewed as a lack of support coming from the MoP council and stagnation of progress on any problems facing the department.

The issue that pushed her over the edge was the lack of progress on resolving the ongoing lack of water at the Breckenridge fire station.

“At station three the toilet froze and cracked and then at station one the well ran dry so there was no working toilet,” she said.

Hardwick said that firefighters reported to the council in February that the station had no water and it is still yet to be repaired.

She says that firefighters were not able to use the bathroom or able to decontaminate their equipment, which is an important safety precaution that firefighters need to take.

She claimed that much of the problems are rooted in the council’s micromanaging the fire department, which she suspected came from an interpersonal dispute between the director of the fire department and members of the MoP council.

She and Bérubé both explained that every purchase made by the director of the fire department is scrutinized by council, and the director was often prevented from making purchases he viewed as necessary to helping the department, even though he was trying to spend money already budgeted to the department.

“The director [of the fire department] has no ability to make financial decisions whatsoever,” said Hardwick. “So, he had no budget that he could just say, well, I’ll get this fixed or that fixed. Even though he’s the subject matter expert.”

She further explained the impression she had that the council was needlessly holding up fire department business.

“We were doing equipment checks over and over and reporting the same issues continuously,” she said. “And from my understanding, the fire director was not really empowered to do anything about it.”

Two volunteer firefighters who are currently employed by the MoP fire department contacted THE EQUITY and corroborated what both Bérubé and Hardwick said. Both firefighters stated that proper safety precautions are lacking and that morale is low in the department. They also stated that council is the source of the problems within the department and that the director of the fire department was unable to act independently.

Both anonymous firefighters said they are considering resigning if conditions do not improve.

Both the Mayor of the MoP Roger Larose and recently-appointed Acting Director General Mario Allen defended the actions of the municipality and its council.

“The council is there to support the fire department 100 per cent, but the only thing is that you have to follow the rules,” said Larose, who claimed that previous financial requests from the fire department were brought to the council at the last minute and without estimates, prompting the council to hold off on granting their approval.

Allen, who holds the position of director of public works in the MoP, along with the position of acting director general, and also exercises responsibilities as the director of the fire department while the current director is on medical leave, says that every department in the municipality is subject to the same rules, and must have their purchases scrutinized to ensure transparency.

He said that the council likes to see multiple quotes on services that need to be performed and therefore it is up to the director of the fire department to present multiple options to the council in a timely manner.

Larose stated this wasn’t done by the fire department when requesting the digging of a new well at the Breckenridge fire station, which is why a new well hasn’t been dug yet.

“It should be approved at the next council meeting (May 10),” said Allen about the approval for the new well. “So, things are following their regular procedures.”

As for the resignation of the two firefighters and the approval of new staff Allen said: “Some of the fire fighters will quit, then some new ones will join our department and those seats will be replaced just like usual. Just give time to the council to be presented with new hires and the council will act on it.”

Allen said as soon as the current fire director returns from his sick leave on May 27, the process to hire more fighters and officers will start up again.

“Because one or two individuals are not happy about something doesn’t mean it’s a major problem,” said Allen about the criticism from the two recently resigned firefighters.

Both Larose and Allen said they are not worried about the current state of the fire department and are working on addressing some of the issues it’s facing, which they say originate from a time before the arrival of the new council.

“There’s always improvement to be done,” said Allen. “But I’ll just say that the fire stations we need are there, the fire trucks we need are there and the amount of people we need are there. We’re respecting the schéma de risques according to the MRC, otherwise we would have to invest some major funds to do improvements and right now it’s only regular maintenance in the budget.”

While discussing the prospect of more resignations at the MoP fire department, Larose said that it is the firefighters right to resign and regardless of what happens the municipality can rely on Bristol and Chelsea to continue to respond to calls.

THE EQUITY was unable to reach current Director of the Fire Department Kevin Mansey or the municipal councillor implicated in the disputes with the fire department for comment before press time.

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