The City of Prince George could be providing fire training to Fire Rescue Services in BC.
- Need for one additional staffed unit at Hall 2.
- Need for the provision of an appropriate local training site.
- Need for the provision of a 5th staffed fire hall in the industrial area in the south-east portion of the City.
This came from a Fire Services Training Facility Feasibility Study that was approved during budget deliberations earlier this year.
“Today, Prince George Fire Rescue Services travels to other municipalities in BC to meet annual training requirements. The travel is expensive and has a negative impact on city fire operations,” the report reads.
“In addition to the training needs of PGFRS, there appears to be considerable need and interest from external industry organizations for use of a fire training site in Prince George.”
Two sites were identified by for the training site, areas behind Fire Hall #3 (3778 Konrath Road, along Highway 16), and expanding the Prince George Airport Training site.
“To be very clear here, this is still going to cost money, there’s still going to be a high level of subsidization,” said Director of Public Safety Adam Davey.
“There’s no model out there where the City’s going to generate more revenue than the cost to operate this. The real driving benefit here is that the City will have this facility and we’ll no longer have to send our own staff elsewhere to train.”
The Fire Hall #2 expansion would be a full replacement on the eastern portion of the site, which would be done in a way that would minimize any disruption construction may cause to fire services.
Davey noted phase one was to assess locations in the city for a potential fire training centre.
“Phase 2 now is to specifically look at Vanway and come back a year from now and say here’s what were looking for a multi-phased buildout,” he explained.
“Part of that would be business case, cost-benefit analysis, and if Council wants to include that in the 2025-26 capital plan.”
Council approved a one-time budget enhancement of $75,000 to conduct phase two of the Prince George Fire Training Feasibility Study next year.
This will be included in budget deliberations in January.
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