CORNWALL, Ontario – The public learned for the first time on Monday, Jan. 27 at the Cornwall City Council meeting that the City has purchased land to build a new fire hall.
The proposed fire hall will be located on the northwest corner of Tollgate Rd. and Brookdale Ave. The new fire station will replace the current station located on Fourth St. W. in Cornwall’s downtown.
This would continue Cornwall Fire Services two station model, with the other station located on Second St. E. in the East End.
Cornwall Fire Chief Pierre Voisine was challenged by some members of council on response times for this new station, as well as on the public consultation for this process.
“I have heard from no one in the public about response times. I have gotten emails from the President of the Firefighters association,” said Councillor Claude McIntosh.
Voisine said that he had not received any emails about concerns over response times from any member of the public or from the President of the Cornwall Professional Firefighters Association. Voisine did point out however, that according to the Fire Master Plan, moving a fire station to the North End of Cornwall would increase his service’s response time.
Currently, according to Voisine, Cornwall Fire Services are able to respond to calls within six minutes 69 per cent of the time, but once their new station is built, that response time will increase to 94 per cent.
The total projected cost of the new fire station, including the cost of purchasing the land, is $9,097,262.
Councillor Eric Bergeron objected to the methodology of the project as well as the methodology taken during public consultation.
“I think this presentation should have been a year ago. We should have talked how much we needed to spend first and then go out and buy,” he said.
Bergeron pointed to the low turn out to a public consultation held in 2018 about the new fire hall. According to the report, only 36 people attended the public consultation, Bergeron stated that 30 of that 36 were firefighters and that two more were himself and his wife. Bergeron further pointed to the fact that the report states that 32 of the 36 attendees were opposed to the fire hall being built on the corner of Tollgate Rd. and Brookdale Ave.
“Where is the data coming from saying that there was a strong preference to the location on the Brookdale and Tollgate,” Bergeron asked Chief Voisine.
Voisine explained that there was a strong preference for a fire hall in the northwest quadrant of the city. The study for the new fire hall looked at seven different locations along Brookdale Ave. determining that Brookdale and Thirteenth St. was the most preferred location, but was not feasible because no land was available.
“Was there a strong preference for Brookdale Ave. and Tollgate,” pressed Bergeron.
Voisine responded that there was a fairly positive preference for a fire hall in the northwest quadrant of the city.
“At that time, we were looking at the Northwest quadrant of the city. We were looking at different options at the time. You have the feedback and you can make that determination for yourself,” he said.
“I have made that determination and it’s wrong,” Councillor Bergeron responded. “The bullet points said that residents had a strong preference for Brookdale and Thirteenth. This is not that. I’m very disappointed in this presentation and oppose this fire hall.”
Representatives from Colliers Project Leaders, the consulting firm hired by the City to complete the study of the new fire hall defended the process saying that this was typical of how such projects were organized in other municipalities.
Cornwall Mayor Bernadette Clement said that she supported the new fire hall, but that she felt that better public consultation in the future was something that should be focused on.
The new fire hall is planned to be 16,00 sq. ft. with facilities for training in hazardous material, vehicle extraction, vehicle fires and other training areas.
