A rural Kings County, N.S., volunteer fire department has filed an application of judicial review over the municipality’s abrupt decision to close it down.
According to documents filed in Supreme Court on Thursday, the Greenwich Fire Department is seeking a judicial stay on the decision to shut its doors and transfer fire services to the fire department in Wolfville as of April 1.
“The department says that the decisions were made in a procedurally unfair manner,” the application said. It lists the Municipality of the County of Kings, the Greenwich fire commissioners, and the town of Wolfville as respondents.
The decision to close down the fire department was made during an in-camera session of council for the Municipality of the County of Kings on Feb. 22.
The council, along with that of the Town of Wolfville, jointly formalized an agreement with the Greenwich Fire Commission — which is separate from the department — to merge the two districts following a study of fire services in the region that looked at potential overlaps and room for improvements.
The review, conducted by consulting firm Emergency Management and Training Inc., recommended that the two districts combine “to address service duplications relating to overlaps in coverage.”
The study, which was completed in January, noted that a number of other fire departments in the area are close to Greenwich. “For a rural community served by volunteer firefighters, our team has never seen this density of firefighting capability,” it said.
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Decision made ‘under cover of night’
According to Greenwich Fire Department chief Jason Ripley, the department participated in the study but didn’t know of its findings until after the decision was made. It left him feeling “betrayed,” he said.
Ripley said the department was willing to consider amalgamation, “but of course, an amalgamation is a partnership with two entities, not one being closed and the other taking over.”
The secrecy of that decision is at the crux of the issue, according to Richard Norman, a lawyer with Cox and Palmer Halifax who is representing the department.
“One of the most straightforward problems with what council did here is to make a decision basically under cover of night,” he said, “without any public consultation, without properly consulting with the fire department, giving them an opportunity to weigh in and say their piece about the plan.”
He added the decision was made, “without negotiating with the department, without involving them in the actual decision that was made, without giving notice to the public about the decision.”
While the mayor of the municipality previously told Global News that the study itself acted as a consultation, Norman disagrees.
“My client never had an opportunity to review the report prior to the decision,” he said. “It’s great there’s a consultant’s report, but people should still have an opportunity to comment.”
He said the public is “very interested” in this issue and should have had an opportunity to speak on it before the decision was made.
Norman also said the Greenwich Fire Commission, which participated in the decision with the Kings County and Wolfville councils, includes employees of the Wolfville Fire Department, which the judicial review application claimed was a “conflict of interest.”
“It doesn’t seem like the commission is the appropriate body to be actually making this decision,” Norman said.
Norman said the judicial review process can take “several months to unfold,” but since the department is set to close on April 1, his client is asking for an “urgent” order to stay or freeze council’s decision until the matter is reviewed by the Supreme Court.
He said there will likely be a hearing sometime this month to address that concern.
In an email, Municipality of the County of Kings Mayor Peter Muttart said once legal actions have begun, they are only able to speak to those issues through legal counsel.
“Nevertheless, we continue to hold meetings with the ratepayers in the Fire District to hear their perspectives before we determine next steps in the project,” he said.
Wolfville Mayor Wendy Donovan said she could not comment on the matter “since it’s before the courts.”
Meanwhile, a special Kings County council session is planned for March 8 to further discuss the issue after the council meeting on March 1 was well-attended by concerned members of the public.
Broken trust
In an open letter addressed to the mayor, deputy mayor and councillors of the Municipality of Kings County, former warden Diana Brothers strongly condemned the decision to close the Greenwich Fire Department.
“I have worked with fire departments for over 25 years in Kings County. Past councils have respected and worked very hard at building relationships with all fire departments,” it said.
“It is troubling to think of all the hard work that went into building these relationships, and, with one decision, this trust could be broken.”
Brothers said the decision was disrespectful to the department and the firefighters, as well as to the residents who “value and benefit from that service.”
On Thursday, Ripley, the Greenwich fire chief, said he was encouraged by the public support he’s received in the last week.
“It’s given both myself and our membership a lot of comfort and strength during a time that’s been pretty difficult for everybody,” he said.
The Greenwich Volunteer Fire Department was founded in 1933 and is entirely volunteer-run. The department’s fire district is about 88 square kilometres, with about 2,000 residents, according to Ripley. It responds to approximately 100 calls per year.
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