SILVER WATER—With the future of the Robinson Township Fire Department in peril with the current fire chief having announced his retirement, members of the public recommended to the local services board (LSB) that they hire the Burpee and Mills fire chief to also be the chief for Robinson Township at a meeting held last week. They asked that Burpee and Mills council support allowing Rick Graham to take on both roles.
The Robinson LSB held a public meeting July 8 attended by Tim Beebe and Kevin Schooler of the Northern Fire Protection Plan (NFPP) administered by the Ontario Fire Marshal (OFM). Ashley Barbeau, the local advisor of the OFM was also in attendance.
“This meeting is being held to solely look at the status of the fire department, which is not good,” said LSB chair Paul Sorbara. “Our current fire chief (Doug Wismer) has retired and we cannot run a fire department without a fire chief.” He pointed out that over the past few months the LSB has advertised on social media, the local newspaper and by word of mouth but no one has come forth to be the fire chief.
“We have a sliver of hope by merging with another township fire department, Burpee and Mills,” said Mr. Sorbara. “We are hoping to become a substation of them but if we did that we would run into a problem where the OFM support of equipment through the NFPP would be lost, but hopefully we can pull this off.”
“This is where we are at,” stated Mr. Sorbara. “I don’t know what else to say. We have this little plan in place and hopefully Doug can speak to this. Perhaps we can come up with a workable plan with Burpee and Mills. We may need a substation chief but perhaps with the help of the OFM we can come up with a solution.”
Tom Rumley, a member of the public and a Robinson firefighter, asked how many NFPP fire departments are in the same boat as Robinson where they are similar sized operations. Mr. Schooler explained, “There are 47, almost 48 NFPP fire departments with 800 plus members stretching from the Manitoba border east to North Bay with different levels of service and more and more are having problems keeping a fire chief, and so far, there are all kinds of ways this can be resolved.”
“At least in one other case there is one fire chief for two unorganized townships, and other fire departments are considering what you are as well,” said Mr. Beebe. “This option is as good as any as it keeps Robinson in the NFPP. To me, the paperwork would not be huge.”
“It appears we have two options,” said John VanEvery. “One would be to join the Burpee fire department. What are the consequences of that?”
Mr. Beebe explained that the NFPP provides the pumper truck, turnout gear and other funding used by the unorganized townships fire departments. “No matter how the departments are organized firefighters still have to be trained and the new certifications will be coming down to all departments regardless. Where NFPP programs are administered by us, we pay such things as Workers Safety Insurance Board fees,” he said. “If you are outside the program, you would not be considered our employees so that would have to be paid by someone else.”
Mr. Beebe pointed out that there are monthly reports to be made out for attendance, vehicle logs and maintenance, and then most importantly training records.
Mr. Schooler added that accident and incident reports are required so that NFPP can justify department budgets. “What happens here is not a lot different from other small departments.”
Currently, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) provides forest fire protection for Dawson and other unorganized areas.
“We would expect someone in Robinson to make sure that current firefighting equipment is maintained,” added Mr. Schooler.
Mr. Beebe added that when he was a fire chief 30 years ago, he had no training but now a fire chief must have firefighting levels one and two as well as fire officer training. Officer training requires some online training and then a three-day course at a fire training centre.
Local resident Dave Watts commented that a number of people have reached out to insurance companies, and it looks as if residents building insurance could increase as much as 25 percent or more and some people could perhaps not get insurance. He said he did not want the LSB to “cheap out” (in providing funding for the fire department). He would prefer to pay higher taxes than higher insurance.
Rick Graham, Burpee and Mills fire chief said, “This has been my concern for months. It looked as if Burpee and Mills might not have a fire department, so I took the job of fire chief. I have been involved in firefighting for almost 40 years. I do not like paperwork and deputy fire chief Nikki Middleton does the paperwork for Burpee and Mills. This is between the NFPP and the LSB but if there is something I can do to keep the fire department here I will do it. My priority is Burpee and Mills, but I will do what I can to help.”
“If Robinson became a satellite of Burpee and Mills, I could see where Burpee would have a role. But the LSB could hire Rick Graham as our fire chief as well as being chief of Burpee and Mills,” said Mr. VanEvery.
“It’s up to my council (Burpee and Mills). Council would need to talk with the LSB about it,” said Mr. Graham. “You need to make the right decision. You need to talk to Burpee and you need to keep the NFPP here with the equipment. The OFM is here to provide guidance, but you guys need to figure out what you want.”
When questioned, Mr. Schooler said the NFPP provides $1.5 million a year in operating costs to the NFPP fire departments but that does not include the cost of the pumpers. Pumpers for these departments range from $450,000 to $700,000 dollars in cost.
“My vision would be that Burpee and Mills would provide administration. If the LSB of Robinson would provide some dollars (toward the cost of a fire chief and administration) then both departments can be stronger,” said Mr. Wismer. “If we recommend staying with the NFPP program we can still have mutual aid with Burpee Mills. We still would not be able to provide services to Dawson township directly but there could be a balancing act about who could do what about providing that (firefighting) service.”
Mr. Beebe said the NFPP could provide some initial training to meet the new certification levels, but the day-to-day responsibilities lies with the local fire department. “You have to have training to keep your skills up, sharing a chief would only be a part of that.”
Mr. Schooler went on to say that lots of communities share a fire chief, “but you would have to get permission from Rick (Graham’s) own council.”
One person asked if you have to be the fire chief or on the fire department to do the paperwork. “I know a department who hired an administrator to assist the fire chief,” said Mr. Schooler.
“It has already been happening here. Just ask Doug (Wismer),” said Murray Duncanson.
One challenge LSBs always have is to pay a stipend for a fire chief or administrator. The LSB Act does not allow for the levying of fees to pay for a fire chief’s stipend. Mr. Beebe said that it is normally included in the LSB budget.
As to the status of the Robinson township fire department Mr. Wismer said he had set a date of July 7 for retirement as fire chief but could be acting fire chief until a transfer is complete.
Mr. Sorbara said, “we definitely need to recruit additional firefighters, adding that the LSB budget will have to be increased.”
“Let’s pursue the sharing of the Burpee and Mills fire chief,” said John VanEvery.
John Lloyd suggested that as a guide for the LSB perhaps a show of hands in support of moving ahead with the sharing of the fire chief and necessary administration duties with Burpee and Mills. That was done with no dissenting voices.
Mike Addison, Gore Bay fire chief, noted that he had been approached to fill the position but was concerned about the liability of being too far away if there was an incident and if training was not adequate.
“The Ministry of Labour is looking for training and competence in firefighters,” said Mr. Beebe. “I am sure Doug has been training the firefighters. We reduce liability by training. As of July 2026, every firefighter has to be trained to NFPA standards and we are striving to bring the 47 fire departments training up to the level of service they are providing. For exterior firefighting that is three weeks of training broken down into online training prior to three weekends of three days of hands-on training with tests to follow to prove competence.”
Fire Chief Wismer said that this mandatory training came about because of several deaths in the fire service that occurred because of a lack of adequate training.
Ken Noland, reeve of Burpee and Mills was in attendance and said that council has had preliminary discussions on the issue of sharing the fire chief position and they (council) see no problem. If something comes up it can be worked out between council, Robinson LSB, the fire chief, OFM and possibly the Ministry of Northern Affairs (the administrators of the LSB Act).
