Province of BC offering funding for regional workshops for Fire Departments

To provide for better administrative support for Fire Departments across British Columbia,  the Provincial Government is setting aside 50,000 dollars to develop regional workshops for smaller communities, which for the most part rely on volunteer fire department members for fire protection.

The Program called Working Together: Effective Fire Service Administration for Fire Chiefs and Local Government Chief Administrative Officers is designed to provide the smaller, rural based departments the opportunity to deliver services to their communities that may get less attention owing to the staffing situations of the volunteer based departments.

It is held by way of a partnership between the Local Government Management Association of British Columbia, the Office of the Fire Commissioner and Fire Chief's Association of British Columbia.

The funding to be delivered through the Emergency Management BC follows a pilot project from November of 2014 held in Prince George, which received positive feedback from those communities that were in attendance.

“Being able to contribute $50,000 to facilitate workshops in a number of smaller B.C. communities will give these local governments the opportunity to learn more about fire department needs and how those directly relate to the fire services they deliver.”-- Suzanne Anton, Attorney General and Minister of Justice

The project stems from the findings of a 2009 Report into the Provinces Fire/Rescue Services and acts upon the desire to standardize such things as training standards and provide for support to train, recruit and retain members for Volunteer departments, much like the one in Port Edward.

You can learn more about the recommendations from the Transforming Fire/Rescue report here,  a review of the funding announcement can be examined here.