CANSARK9

K9 Handler, #GSAR Volunteer, #PIO. Instagram @cansark9. Tweets are my own, & may not be organizationally representative. Retweets don’t endorse. BPR completed.

[CANSARK9 @CANSARK9]

Two incredible team members- so lucky to have been asked to attend their special day.

[Halifax SAR @HalifaxSAR]

How it started vs. how it’s going

Six years ago, they joined the team to serve their community—and then found each other! Fast forward to this week, and they’re married! 💍❤️

Here’s to many more years of love, searches, rescues, and adventures together. #SARPartners

[RCMP Nova Scotia @RCMPNS]

#RCMPNS joined peace officers from across #NovaScotia on Oct. 20 for the annual Fallen Peace Officers Memorial. Peace Officers marched in a solemn procession to Grand Parade, where they remembered and honoured those who have lost their lives keeping the peace in the province.

[CANSARK9 @CANSARK9]

@glasgowgirl2505 @TimHoustonNS Thank-you for your support! Like the Fire Service, #GSAR is the responsibility of the municipality. @nsgov provides Emergency Services Provider Fund (ESPF) grants that we can apply for every 3 years. Core operational funding comes from @hfxgov. Fundraiser for all other expenses.

[CANSARK9 @CANSARK9]

What am I thankful for? That I have a the amazing opportunity to volunteer with incredible HSAR volunteers. 🙂

Special thanks to team members who met and plotted out this project.

[Halifax SAR @HalifaxSAR]

Halifax Search and Rescue is here for our community in times of need. Whether it's supporting vulnerable residents during extreme weather, finding missing individuals, or assisting someone injured on a trail, we're ready to help. Learn more about Halifax SAR in this video!

[Halifax SAR @HalifaxSAR]

.@SammieSearchdog is on a road trip this weekend- she’s with @ColchesterSAR for a recruitment drive/open house in #Truro. Live in #Colchester County and interested in joining their team? You can catch them at Canadian Tire before 2 p.m.. #SARPartners #GSAR

[CANSARK9 @CANSARK9]

So proud of how our team continues to develop our capabilities.

[Halifax SAR @HalifaxSAR]

Our RPAS crew took steps to integrate RPAS with our Starlink satellite system. During searches, video can be sent to reviewers for additional screening. During civil emergencies, they can stream video of impacted sites to emergency managers at the EOC, allowing real-time access to field conditions.

[Halifax SAR @HalifaxSAR]

Our RPAS crew took steps to integrate RPAS with our Starlink satellite system. During searches, video can be sent to reviewers for additional screening. During civil emergencies, they can stream video of impacted sites to emergency managers at the EOC, allowing real-time access to field conditions.

[RCMP Nova Scotia @RCMPNS]

KUDOS to the Hammonds Plains Volunteer Fire Society on the success of its recently held Open House at @HFXFire Station 50, and thank you for the invite to Halifax Regional Detachment! #PartnersInFirstResponse

[Halifax SAR @HalifaxSAR]

🚒🔥 Halifax SAR had a blast at the #HammondsPlains Volunteer Firefighters Society & @HfxFire Station 50 open house! Great connecting with the community & showing what we do. Special shoutout to @SammieSearchdog for crushing the youth Firefighters Challenge! 💪🐾 Big thanks to the volunteers at Station 50 for an amazing event!

[CANSARK9 @CANSARK9]

@alyssa38750507 @HalifaxSAR Who are you?

[CANSARK9 @CANSARK9]

I had no idea the amount of love a #Malinois would bring in our lives. Due to other responsibilities with @HalifaxSAR, our work towards validation as a civilian #GSAR dog team is a much slower process than I hoped. Happy #InternationalDogDay.

[CANSARK9 @CANSARK9]

Likely the busiest call out week we’ve had. Super proud of everyone on the team stepping up and doing what they do best- serving as one, so others may live.

[Halifax SAR @HalifaxSAR]

Halifax SAR and East Hants GSAR responded to a search in #Enfield this afternoon, our seventh in seven days. The subject was successfully located. In one week, we responded to almost 10% of our total call volume from last year. #SARPartners #GSAR

[Halifax SAR @HalifaxSAR]

Halifax SAR and East Hants GSAR responded to a search in #Enfield this afternoon, our seventh in seven days. The subject was successfully located. In one week, we responded to almost 10% of our total call volume from last year. #SARPartners #GSAR

[CANSARK9 @CANSARK9]

After a long absence from the tracking fields, Xave, Cinder, and I finally made it back out to do some tracks on Sunday. What a glorious day!

[Halifax SAR @HalifaxSAR]

Honoured to have hosted Bob Koester, author of Lost Person Behavior, for a training with 7 GSAR teams participating. His expertise in understanding lost person behaviour invaluable for search ops. Thanks for sharing your knowledge! #GSAR #SearchandRescue #LostPersonBehavior

[CANSARK9 @CANSARK9]

When I went back to Uni in my early 40’s, the 3 year program seemed like it would be a lifetime. Now, it seems like a lifetime ago I sat in @DartmouthDivStu’s Public Speaking class in the @MSVU_Halifax @MSVUCommStudies’s program. Hard to believe it has been 7 years…

[Halifax SAR @HalifaxSAR]

Today we honor the brave trans individuals who have paved the way for visibility and equality. Let's continue to advocate for their rights and uplift their voices. #TransDayOfVisibility #TDOV #VisibilityMatters 🏳️‍⚧️✊

[CANSARK9 @CANSARK9]

Saddened to hear of Bruce's passing. Bruce was my Venturer Advisor back when @hfxfire created a vocational Venturer program (part of @scoutscanada ). Bruce helped create many amazing opportunities for our group, many of which continue to serve as Firefighters and paramedics.

[CAFC/ACCP @CdnFireChiefs]

We are saddened to share that Chief Bruce Burrell, a past president of @CdnFireChiefs and a former Fire Chief of the Year, has passed away. Chief Burrell brought a degree of dedication unmatched by many to firefighter safety. He will be remembered. Our condolences. @chiefmcmullen

[CANSARK9 @CANSARK9]

@TonyMancini_NS @WayeMason @pattycuttell11

[CANSARK9 @CANSARK9]

.@HfxFire have requested $175k for a Swiftwater rescue equipment. This request $30k more than operational funding to the four @hfxgov #GSAR teams in 23-24, one of which deployed highly experienced Swiftwater Rescue Technicians to support the floods in both Bedford and West Hants.

[Halifax Fire News @HRMFireNews]

Good morning, Happy Sunday, and welcome to the weekly update. This week's topics:

1. Budget presentation highlights: new initiatives
2. Budget presentation highlights: statistics
3. Budget process: next steps
4. My two cents on STN65 vs. STN50
5. New fire prevention positions

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1. HRFE's budget proposal for the 2024/25 budget year will be presented to HRM council's budget committee this coming Friday, March 1st. The budget presentation was released two days ago. This document always provides a good window into the new plans for the department in the coming year. Here are the key highlights as I see them:

- The document confirms a request to bring 24/7 staffing with a crew of four to either Station 65 (Tantallon) or Station 50 (Hammonds Plains) in February 2025. This would change one of the two stations from the current model with a four-person E platoon (daytime during the week crew) with volunteers, to a new model of a four-person crew 24/7 with volunteers. The request is for 15 new positions, so it seems that which ever of the two stations does not get staffed 24/7 will retain their E platoon crew. I thought there was a chance they may combine the E platoon crews, but it doesn't look that way.

- The overall proposed budget increase is just shy of $8-million, bringing HRFE's proposed budget to $92.1 million. The biggest year over year increases are $4.4 million for compensation adjustments due to the collective agreement, $1.5 million in an increase for volunteer honourariums, and a $1 million increase for the 24/7 staffing of Station 38 (Middle Musquodoboit).

- One of the rumoured changes for this budget was to move to a model of three on-shift District Chiefs 24/7 (up from two) and two on shift-platoon captains (up from one plus one on E platoon). Interestingly, this is not present in the budget document. However, that doesn't necessarily mean it won't happen. They may have plans to do this within their existing budget. We'll have to wait and see.

- There is new funding requested for swiftwater rescue equipment and training. HRFE's lack of swiftwater capability showed up during the flooding this year, so this is a logical improvement to look at I'd say.

- HRFE is recruiting a medical program specialist to continue the development of their medical program.

- There is mention of an existing capital budget ask for the replacement of HRFE's radios, which includes encryption. I will deal with this in a separate post as it is an important topic and people need to clearly understand what it would mean. It doesn't look like it would happen until at least early 2025, so I'll have more to say when time allows.

These are the main new initiatives proposed in the budget. Overall, I'd say it is very much in line with what was expected.

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2. The budget presentation also includes some key statistics for the year 2023, as follows:

- Total incidents were up 11% to 16,684. This is higher than the number I had previously reported due to differences in how they count vs. how I count. I'm not really sure how they're getting to that number, as my number was about 1,000 less, but either way, there's no doubt that calls are going up.

- First on scene performance times are up across the board (with the one exception being rural volunteer medical response times). I'm not 100% sure what would be causing these to go up. It is likely a combination of things: HRFE has, very modestly, improved practices when it comes to coverage. There's also the staffing of 9 Aerial, which has made a big difference on first-in response times in Sackville when 9E is unavailable. Those are two things that come to mind.

- Effective firefighting force numbers are down 3.2 percent. The department achieved the 14-person standard of being on scene within 11 minutes 57.1 percent of the time last year. The mapping shows HRFE is nowhere near hitting effective firefighting force consistently in any part of the core except portions of downtown Halifax and Dartmouth. I'm a little bit surprised the budget presentation doesn't include any asks that would directly relate to improved EFF, although I guess they can only ask for so many things at once. Also, if they did choose to staff STN50 instead of STN65 this could help EFF in parts of Bedford. Overall, EFF remains a big challenge and core staffing levels are something that is going to have to be discussed if they're ever going to come close to meeting the council-approved targets.

- My guess on why the EFF performance slipped from year to year is likely a combination of factors, first would be population growth, i.e. having to cover more occupancies with roughly the same level of resources. Second could be that HRFE had significant brown-outs in parts of the year due to staffing shortages which may have been a factor. Also, some of the EFF performance from year to year probably involves a certain amount of randomness, i.e. whether the fires happen to hit greater or lesser staffed areas.

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3. In terms of next steps for the budget, the Chief will present this document to council next Friday, which is basically a proposal. Council will ask questions and may request revisions. Usually, the meeting ends with a recommendation to include the HRFE budget in the overall final HRM budget, either as proposed or as revised, if there are revisions. The overall HRM budget does not get fully finalized for several weeks yet, so what is described above could change. However, we'll have a good sense of what changes are being made, if any, by the end of the meeting on Friday.

My own guess is that council won't ask for alot of changes from HRFE this year due to what is being requested. The three main cost drivers of the increased budget are contractual increases in compensation, which they can't do anything about at this time, staffing Middle Musquodoboit, which was effectively approved last year, and additional staffing for Tantallon or Hammonds Plains, which has a minimal budget impact this year, and regardless, I don't see any councillor pushing back on staffing for that area given what happened with the Wildfires. Even without the wildfires, 24/7 staffing in that area has been on the radar for a long time now and the area has met the accepted criteria for it for a long time now.

However, you never really know for sure what will happen in the budget meeting, so we'll see.

I will cover the budget presentation in full on Friday.

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4. I want to add my two cents on the debate around 24/7 staffing at STN65 (Tantallon) or STN50 (Hammonds Plains). For a long time now, I think people observing this situation have assumed that STN65 would be the station to get 24/7 staffing. However, as I've explained before, I don't think that's necessarily the best choice. I think there's a strong argument for staffing STN50 before STN65. Here are a few points to consider:

- STN50's response area has a higher population density than does STN65's response area, and population density is one of the factors considered when making staffing decisions, according to the department.

- In 2023, STN50 had slightly more total responses and slightly more first-due responses than STN65.

- If STN50 were to be staffed, it has the ability to help with EFF in some urban areas near its borders, particularly in Lucasville and West Bedford. If STN65 were to be staffed, it would have almost no impact on Urban EFF.

- STN65 and STN50 both have relatively large volunteer bases, however, STN65 volunteers are positioned such that they can respond more quickly than those at STN50. Therefore, there's potentially larger response time improvements to be had by staffing STN50 over STN65.

To be clear, it is debatable. There are lots of reasons they might pick STN65 instead. I just think it's a tougher decision than most people think.  Also, over the long run, there's a good chance the discussion may be around staffing both stations 24/7, especially if rapid growth continues. However, for now, I wanted to add my two cents on the STN65 vs. STN50 question.

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5. The Fire Prevention Divison has posted for two new manager positions this week, a Manager of Fire Inspection Services and a Manager of Internal and Investigative services. It sounds like the first will manage the fire inspectors, and the second will manage the fire prevention officers. They've been talking about restructuring in Fire Prevention for some time, so I guess this is one step in that process. I don't have a lot of thoughts on the matter. You can find the job postings below:

https://t.co/t87EFhY8wf

https://t.co/nqWnONoZ98

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That's all for this week. If anybody has any questions for Q&A, feel free to send them in as I'll be around all day. In particular, I didn't cover every single aspect of the budget given I don't have enough space, but I'm happy to field any budget questions or other questions.

Have a great Sunday!