At the Feb. 23 Township budget meeting, Councillor Barb Martens moved to add one firefighter position dedicated to fire prevention and education. Staff put the full-year cost at roughly $177,000. The approved changes sheet later recorded the item as a Fire Life Safety Educator at $176,541, which indicates the role was included in the operating budget at that stage.

Councillor Tim Baillie opposed it, saying that while prevention and education matter, if the Township was going to fund another firefighter position, he wanted that person “on the floor” doing emergency response. He referred to his experience with fire service issues in support of that position. Township candidate materials describe Baillie as a retired fire captain who served more than 27 years in Surrey.

During the discussion, Baillie spoke about his background, his advocacy, and concerns he attributed to earlier councils. When the issue returned later in the meeting, he opened with, “I guess I didn’t speak clear enough. That’s usually not a problem of mine.”

The Fire Department says part of its mission is to mitigate emergencies before they occur through fire safety education and code enforcement. Its public materials describe Fire Prevention/Public Education as one of the department’s major divisions. The 2023 Fire Department annual report says the department was organized into three divisions, including Prevention and Public Education, and that core public education activities resumed that year. A 2018 Township release also referred to a Public Life Safety Educator, and the department’s 2019 Standards of Cover said public educators reached 17,303 citizens in 2017. Martens’ motion was asking council to restore or strengthen a function the Township has long described as core work.

The later budget record reflected a different approach than the one Baillie advocated. In 2022, the Township said council had committed to 44 new firefighters over four years. The 2026 budget added 12 new firefighters starting July 1 and another 4 starting Oct. 1. It also kept the Fire Life Safety Educator in the plan. On March 9, council changed that role’s start date from Jan. 1 to Sept. 1, but did not remove it. At that same March 9 meeting, the official transcript includes Baillie as indicating that the program needed to be started by “the proper people in place.”

Baillie’s comments appeared to emphasize prioritizing suppression staffing before expanding public education. The budget that followed did not adopt that, instead it funded both on different timelines. A question arising from Baillie’s remarks was how those two needs fit together within the same budget. His comments referred to credentials, history, and who was best placed to judge the file, and council reached a different conclusion.