The municipality is exploring a possible agreement with Mansfield and Pontefract for fire services, which could see Mansfield’s department become responsible for calls on Waltham’s territory.

Waltham’s current agreement with Mansfield is for mutual aid, meaning that each department helps the other to reach a strike force. This means that for fires in Waltham, the municipality pays its own firefighters, but also Mansfield’s when they are called in.

But now, updated fire maps have revealed some new information that could change the way the two departments collaborate.

Last year, MRC Pontiac officials began working on a new fire safety cover plan as mandated by the province. Still in the process of being finalized, the plan’s maps are designed to show which fire departments can respond fastest to any location within a municipality’s perimeter.

“The faster you are [ . . . ], the bigger chunk of map you’re going to get,” said MRC public security coordinator Julien Gagnon, who has been working with municipalities to go over 9-1-1 call data, ensuring all information on the map accurately reflects each department’s response time.

Gagnon said the idea is to make sure firefighters can respond as quickly as possible in the event of an emergency, regardless of which department they belong to.

“As a resident you just don’t care where the fire truck comes from, as long as it’s got some water in it, it’s a big red fire truck and it puts water on your house as soon as possible,” he said.

Gagnon said the maps show an interesting development – that Mansfield’s department can reach a full strike force faster during daytime hours than Waltham’s department on a large part of its own territory.

“It’s sort of a perfect storm scenario where the Mansfield Fire Department is one of the Pontiac’s fastest departments and Waltham is on the slower end, for various reasons,” he said.

Waltham mayor Odette Godin said this information reflects the reality she sees on the ground, which is that during the day many Waltham firefighters are not always nearby because they work or live elsewhere.

“There’s absolutely no employment, so they all have to drive, so during the day there’s not enough to meet the strike force [ . . . ] and we now have a lot of firemen who don’t live in this municipality,” she said.

According to the new fire safety cover plan, the fire departments that are shown to respond most quickly on the map will automatically be dispatched to the scene. This is different from what happens now, where help is dispatched only if it is needed to reach a strike force.

Gagnon said this practice will not be allowed anymore.

“We do not want these small local fire departments to be waiting those 10 to 12 minutes before calling the neighbour [ . . . ] You have to mobilize the best strike force to get to the fire as fast as possible.”

Godin said that in this case, without some form of official fire agreement with Mansfield, her municipality would have to pay two separate fire departments for fire services on its territory.

“So no matter what now, we [would] have to pay our budget for our firemen, and for Mansfield to come here,” she said.

Waltham set aside a base amount of $121,555 in its 2025 budget for fire protection services, plus costs per call. But if an agreement is reached, Godin said Waltham could pay an all-inclusive amount every year.

Fire department pushback

Waltham chief Larry Perry has publicly decried the municipality’s decision to explore this agreement, saying it undermines the volunteers who founded the department and continue to serve the community.

“By assigning our territory permanently to another municipality we lose our responsibility and therefore the rationale for funding a local fire department,” he said.

Perry is also disputing the maps’ accuracy, claiming that his department is often first on the scene.

“[Mansfield] can’t serve this area as quickly and efficiently as we can,” he said.

Gagnon said while Waltham may often be first to the scene, what matters for the maps is reaching a strike force of eight firefighters – which is what the province says is enough to fight a structure fire.

“It’s not the speed or time of your fastest firefighter, in fact it’s your slowest firefighter. If you’re telling me you’ve got [ . . . ] eight firefighters, you’ve got to give me the time of that eighth firefighter,” he said.

Gagnon said in the end the maps do not bind municipalities into signing an agreement. “If they disagree with the map, ultimately their protocols are their own,” he said.

But, he said, costs for fire services have been increasing across the province, leaving many municipalities trying to find ways to cover the bills.

He said an MRC study done a few years ago shows that since 2002, the 18 Pontiac municipalities collectively spent about $450,000 on fire services. By this year, the number has risen to $2.6 million – more than a fivefold increase, well outpacing inflation and any increase in population. “We are looking for solutions,” he said.

Mansfield and Pontefract mayor Sandra Armstrong said the agreement would qualify her municipality for a grant of up to $350,000 from the province’s municipal affairs ministry, meant to encourage intermunicipal cooperation.

“That would take our budget down for three years,” she said, adding that the grant could help improve the fire department.

Gagnon, who has been overseeing many mergers, said merged fire departments are an unavoidable future for small, squeezed municipalities.

“Municipalities have seen this coming for about a year. There’s a reason Bryson and Calumet Island went to Campbell’s Bay. There’s a reason Thorne is looking. It’s inevitable that they will have to work together.”

Waltham will be holding a public information session on Sept. 11 to inform residents about the possibility of a merger.

Perry will be there to dispute the fire maps, even though earlier this year before the chats with Mansfield he announced his intention to resign from the department he has served for 50 years.

“I get it, it’s a dog-eat-dog world. But for us it’s very much about surviving as a community and having pride in ourselves,” he said.

Godin said whatever decision is made, it does not take away from the heart and soul of those firefighters.

“Nobody’s saying they’re not great. They are great. Everything they have done is appreciated,” she said.

But she said for now, nothing is final, and that the municipality is also exploring conversations with the Pontiac Ouest department. “No decision has been made. No vote has been made.”

This story has been updated since being printed to reflect certain changes that were not reflected in the printed version.

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