After shopping around for a better price on fire dispatch services, the Township of Esquimalt has accepted a proposal from the City of Surrey.
In December, council received a letter from the District of Saanich B次元官网网址� with whom they had worked for over a decade B次元官网网址� saying the cost was about to double. Esquimalt Fire Chief Chris Jancowski said the department knew an increase was imminent, but the number still caught them off guard.
In a letter to council March 7, Jancowski wrote, B次元官网网址淎s stewards of the public purse, it was difficult to justify a doubling of dispatch costs when there are other providers that likely charge considerably less.B次元官网网址�
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The District of Saanich also provides fire dispatch services to Colwood, North Saanich, Sidney and View Royal. The four municipalities, along with Esquimalt, decided this week to pass a motion to enter into an agreement with Surrey, one of the largest dispatch centres in the province, serving 32 other communities.
In the meantime, Esquimalt signed two extensions that will utilize Saanich operations until the end of April 2018 after their contact expired at the end of 2017.
This leaves a bill tallying just $95,700 for Esquimalt taxpayers for the remainder of 2018, compared to SaanichB次元官网网址檚 price of $196,200. The City of Surrey will also charge the Township an additional $6,000 in the first year of operation for training and implementation costs.
B次元官网网址淓squimalt council unanimously supported the recommendation of going with Surrey for fire dispatch,B次元官网网址� Mayor Barb Desjardins said. B次元官网网址淭his is a significant cost saving for our community and the others of the region that are supporting this direction.B次元官网网址�
In total, three proposals were received for consideration, including the District of Saanich, the City of Surrey and the CRD/City of Langford.
