Tay Township has expanded its rescue services to local waterways thanks to an agreement with neighbouring Georgian Bay Township.
Fire chief Brian Thomas presented a report to council this week on the agreement with the neighbouring fire department.
As a result of this pact, which comes into effect in April, Georgian Bay Township will provide Tay fire access to two marine units. One is a 27-foot Stanley boat and the other is a 25-foot Kingfisher with mobile pumps.
"This means when Tay Township is in need of a marine unit, we can call Georgian Bay Township," Thomas told MidlandToday. "And if their unit isn’t being used at the time, they will come and provide the marine unit and a captain who is in charge of the boat."
The neighbouring municipality may or may not provide firefighters, however, he said. Tay firefighters are already trained to use the marine pumps, he noted.
Thomas said this agreement will give Tay Township fire department the ability to perform rescues on its shoreline and attend to fires on Methodist Island, which has close to 15 houses on it.
As with all fire departments, he said, firefighters respond to more medical and accident calls than fires.
"In the past, we haven’t had access to Methodist Island other than winter time when we would have to walk out there for ice water rescue," he said. "This could (also) help with medical calls on the island."
The township also has "a fairly long shoreline where things can go wrong and we haven’t had access before," Thomas said.
He said the need to put together such an agreement came out of council's concern for residents' safety after someone drowned a couple years ago in the waters off Tay Township.
"All we could do was walk the shorelines where the police had their sonar to locate the person," Thomas said. "Luckily, in that instance, it so happened we were doing fire training with Georgian Bay and the chief asked if we would like their boat to help. And we appreciated that help."
He said a second incident that happened almost a year ago, when a resident was out on the lake in his boat and lost control and flipped over, added to council's concerns.
For the agreement to take full effect, Thomas said, council will have to set a level of service that allows firefighters to perform their duties on water, too.
"Our (current) regulating bylaw doesn’t permit us to go out onto the water," he said.
The 27-foot Stanley boot, also known as Marine 1, is kept in the water at Honey Harbour. The second boat, Marine 3, sits on a trailer at Port Severn.
How quickly either boat can reach Tay shores depends on the weather, Thomas said.
The agreement has helped Tay Township avoid a price tag of $280,000 need to purchase such a unit, he said.
"Then you have your training on top," said Thomas. "I don’t know all the rules in regards to that, because when I got to the dollar amounts on that I was confident it wasn’t going to go any further with council."
And since Tay and Georgian Bay Township already have a mutual aid agreement in place, he said it makes sense for this to be signed, too.
"We’re always willing to go over there and help them with manpower and tankers," said Thomas. "We also do training and recruitment and joint purchasing, which is a big thing because our budgets are fairly small. When we work hand in hand we make sure the safety of both townships is priority."
Once the agreement is in place, he said the fire department will also inform the OPP, which, along with the Canadian Coast Guard, monitors lake waters.
"We’re all in this together," Thomas said. "We’re an emergency service and if we have a piece of equipment that’s closer than the OPP has, then it makes sense for us to partner."
Council was fully supportive of the agreement.
"I think it’s great," said Mayor Ted Walker. "It shows wonderful cooperation."
Coun. Mary Warnock joined Walker in thanking Thomas.
"I would like to thank you ,myself, and on behalf of council, too, for having come up with this agreement," she said at the mid-week council meeting. "It shows that neighbours can work together."
