There are key areas that should be in place and monitored to ensure the city keeps pace with that growth including:

• benchmarks for baseline performance, measuring deployment and travel times,
• forecast where future incidents are most likely to occur based on zoning,
• identify specific risks in newly developed zones and adapt prevention programs accordingly,
• strategic placement of third station, and
• ensure industry staffing standards.

Paramount to keeping pace, we need well trained fire fighters and personnel, the best equipment resources the city can afford, and ongoing quarterly reviews to monitor our services going forward

To assist Charlottetown with this task, I understand there is a study currently underway to provide recommendations related to this question.

I would expect within this study, it will include fire department resources, water supply and water flow, response time and risk analysis.

To ensure emergency infrastructure keeps pace with growth of Charlottetown, we must embed fire and emergency response requirements directly into statutory (strategic) planning documents and financial frameworks.

The need for a third fire station has already been approved by Council and the planning is underway. The transition to full-time staff requires a long term plan considering the significant financial implications. I do believe that this long term plan needs to be developed and the necessary resources applied.

For this long term plan, we should adopt a data-driven, phased, and safety-focused approach that balances community growth with operational resilience. Council should ensure that we establish baselines and growth forecasting, transition toward industry staffing standards, build a sustainable recruitment and retention strategy, and implement measures such as shared-service agreements with neighboring municipalities including Stratford and Cornwall

I hope that the current study underway will examine the current model and provide recommendations for the long-term sustainability of the service.

Mayor and Council have a responsibility to work with the CAO and Fire Chief to monitor and ensure that the necessary resources are available for emergency services.

Balancing professional safety advice from a Fire Chief with municipal constraints requires a structured, risk-based approach to governance. City leaders must weigh critical emergency needs against infrastructure, community services, and a finite tax budget.

I would review the evidence with the CAO, Fire Chief and Council and act accordingly.

As Mayor and Council, investments that protect human life must always be top priority including clean water and wastewater systems, grid and utility reliability and emergency services infrastructure.

We would use this professional assessment as a resource document when making long-term decisions about the Fire Department.

I support making reports publicly available for residents to review. This builds trust and democratic accountability by creating a clear paper trail for citizens, journalists, and watchdogs.

However, there is a caveat with making the Verisk Canada's Fire Underwriters SurveyTM (FUS) completed report publicly available. This is a national organization that provides data on public fire protection for fire insurance statistical work and underwriting purposes of subscribing insurance companies. The (FUS) assessment reports are proprietary documents owned by Verisk Canada and are not automatically public records. (https://fireunderwriters.ca/).

As a municipality, we can choose to release our own audit results or summaries of this report accessing data through the FUS Municipal Portal. Going forward as a municipality, we need to push for greater transparency regarding FUS grading methodologies and reports to help local taxpayers understand community fire safety risks.

Provide me an overview of Fire Services, including strengths, areas of concern, mitigation strategies and what your 5-year plan is so long term financial implications can be addressed. The discussion will also focus on the key areas identified in question #1.

I fully expect that eventually we will be moving to a fully staffed fire service for the Capital Region. Planning needs to start now and the immediate priority is the creation of Station 3.

There are actually two important things that I would do during my term to improve public safety.

First, we would continue to implement Community Risk Reduction through targeted fire prevention and public education. Stopping fires before they start saves more lives than emergency response alone. When a department focuses on education, it stops emergencies before fire fighters even have to roll the trucks. We will continue to distribute and install smoke alarms, inspect buildings, teach fire safety, and plan ahead to speed up emergency response. We will also continue to expand our City’s website on public safety to be more transparent and keep citizens abreast of the service.

Secondly, I want to acknowledge the work of both our full time and volunteer fire fighters. The citizens of Charlottetown should feel proud and safe knowing these folks are on the job. Change will occur, but in the interim, lets celebrate and thank these men and women for their service.