Saint-denis-de-brompton mayor calls new fire protection service agreement a win-win

Although it’s too early to tell what repercussions the bill with have in the province, Cutting believes it will lead to an exodus of “highly qualified, very ambitious, potential leaders” for the English-speaking community.

Although it hasn’t been accepted by every resident in the small town of Saint-denisde-brompton, Mayor Daniel Veilleux is confident that a new fire protection and first responder service agreement with the city of Sherbrooke will be beneficial in the long run.

On May 3, the town reached an agreement in principle with Sherbrooke to merge its emergency response services, effectively dissolving the current team of volunteer firefighters and first responders in Saint-denis-debrompton. Veilleux said it was the best option.

It will also solve a burgeoning budget problem, he explained to The Record. According to Veilleux, the town will save upwards of $23 million over the span of this 20-year tentative agreement with Sherbrooke. It also keeps the town from activating a borrowing bylaw.

“Now with the option submitted to go with the city of Sherbrooke, we have more services and more coverage at a lower cost, so we don’t need to go through a borrowing bylaw and that was unanimously accepted by the town council,” Veilleux said in a phone interview.

The town had been looking for ways to revamp its fire protection services. There were several options on the table, including the possibility of building a new combined town hall and fire hall, as well as brand new equipment and fire trucks. But it was going to be a costly initiative.

The town council was going to have to submit a borrowing bylaw to fund the development project. But the price for construction has skyrocketed since the pandemic, Veilleux said, sharing that the original estimated analysis went from $5.5 million to $9.6 million.

And that doesn’t include the cost of hiring permanent firefighters, and obtaining new fire trucks and necessary equipment. Veilleux said that a new truck jumped from $700,000 to about $1.2 million. It has also proven to be extremely difficult to attract firefighters to the small town.

“We explained to people that it’s difficult to recruit firefighters because the salary for firefighters in Saint-denis-de-brompton is a lot less, around $26 per hour, while firefighters in Sherbrooke and Magog make about $40 per hour, so recruitment is difficult here,” said

Veilleux.

The Comité d’opposition de Saintdenis-de-brompton (COSDDB), a committee formed by concerned residents, has been vocal about the town’s lack of transparency. The COSDDB believes the merger will not create a safer environment due to delayed response times.

According to COSDDB spokesperson Michel Inkel, the distance between the town and Sherbrooke is significant enough to push response times by at least an additional 10 minutes. He argues that while the town may be saving money, it isn’t worth putting residents at risk.

It will also leave passionate volunteer workers out in the cold, Inkel told The Record on Friday. The COSDDB held a protest last week demanding the town hold a referendum in order to gauge how many residents are in favour of the merger. But Veilleux has no obligations.

The mayor said the town doesn’t need to hold a referendum because there is no borrowing bylaw in place. The agreement will save people money and provide even better service and coverage than the past decade, he added, so why would they need to bring this to a vote.

The COSDDB, however, has filed an online petition, which has gained over 600 signatures since the agreement was announced in early May. Veilleux, though, isn’t certain why the committee is claiming the town hasn’t been transparent. He said the details have been out since 2021.

The town has also held several public information sessions, Veilleux explained, where they’ve discussed the fact that the town has grown in size, which is part of the reason why they needed to address the emergency services. They needed to adapt in 2022, he said.

The mayor noted that they are still working on the file, and they will have more answers to the residents’ concerns. But, at the end of the day, it is residents that would have felt the brunt of the cost hikes, construction, equipment, and hiring workers, Veilleux continued.

“There are just 2,000 residences to pay for all of that, so for us, we have an agreement that will respect our budget without increasing municipal taxes and providing us with much better protection coverage,” he said, adding they will also have protection round the clock now.