Two assessments of the Cortes Island Fire Department were released last week. 

Shaun Koopman, Protective Services Coordinator for the Strathcona Regional District (SRD), emailed,“While both reports covered operational aspects, the SRD’s audit was more focused on the governance model. The concerns expressed in the consultant’s report specifically pertained to the liability exposure that the Regional District incurs from the current governance model.”

Cortes Island’s Interim Fire Chief, Eli McKenty, describes them differently. 

Regarding SRD’s consultant, Ernie Polsom of FireWise Consulting, he said, “Polsom spent about three hours with us and took a brief look through the files. I said, ‘Over here I have training records, over here I have vehicle records, over here I have financial records. I pulled the drawers out, and waved at them. Then said, I’m at your disposal, ask me for whatever you need, and I’ll get it for you.’ He hardly asked for anything.”

The Cortes Island Fire Fighting Association (CIFFA) did not see Polsom’s report until the SRD released it last week, but they decided to hire a consultant of their own. Rob Owens of Integrated Emergency & Safety Services BC is a former Deputy Fire Commissioner for British Columbia in charge of operations, fire investigations, fire code inspections and enforcement, wildfire structure protection program and the supervision of the five remote office locations. 

“Rob Owens spent about 13 hours with me, spoke to all the other officers who were available and dug through the files and we made photocopies. He read through things, asked for background, and asked a lot of in-depth questions. So from my perspective, Owens’ assessment was far more thorough than Polsom’s,” explained McKenty.

However the SRD has been contemplating the idea of a regional fire service for the past two years and Polsom was the author of a study published in August 2022 that recommended: 

1. The SRD should hire a Regional Fire Chief 
2. It should establish a fire services working committee to help prioritize the need for specific services.
3. An administrative service portfolio, with various services of use to local detachments, should be compiled.
4. The SRD should set up an SRD wide digital records management system.

Polsom described the Cortes Island Fire Department as ‘obsolete,’ ‘ineffective’ and at one point in his report states: 

“Provincial and national trends in fire service governance structures reflect the elimination of society and volunteer governance systems in favour of more focused municipal management of their fire departments. This trend is occurring in jurisdictions across British Columbia, including the District of Chetwynd and SRD neighbours like the Comox Valley Regional District.”

On Feb 7, 2023, the day that Rob Owens visited the Cortes Fire Hall in Mansons Landing, Polsom filed a supplemental report (which you can access here). He explained that this was because he received ‘additional information that was not made available during the site visit.’

Both of Polsom’s reports and the one subsequently compiled by Rob Owens refer to WorkSafeBC:   

• Polsom states ‘Services provided by the department are not explicitly described, so training for wildland, slope rescue, marine, and other high-hazard operations does not appear to be supported by a training and competency management program as required by WorkSafeBC.’
• Owens found that the Department had been inspected January 9^th by WorkSafe BC, resulting in two orders, which a followup report from Feb 9^th confirmed had been fully complied with.

Polsom wrote there were only records of recent vehicle inspections. There was no maintenance policy.

“I’m deeply disappointed in the quality of his report. We have records for all of the items he mentions available, if he’d asked for them. I was there at his disposal and ready to photocopy  or scan records if he had requested them,” responded McKenty.

“We’ve got vehicle inspection records dating back decades. We have basically all the paper files since the Cortes Fire Department was established in 1989. We’ve had a robust maintenance program.  Interestingly, he refers to missing months of maintenance records, I think, which is during Ives’s time on the department last year. He changed our maintenance regime, so there were trucks that weren’t getting inspected for a couple of months before he then changed it again to institute new inspections. That might be some of the gaps Polsom is looking at, but by and large we’ve always had a maintenance program that results in them being regularly inspected and we keep records for that.”

Rob Owens accessed these records for his report.

Polsom writes that training records for five staff were submitted and this is not adequate for a fire department.  

McKenty said, “In order to demonstrate the depth of training in response to a separate inquiry, I photocopied training records for five of our members. Polsom got hold of these, and assumed that they were all the records we had. In fact, we have records for all of our firefighters. It didn’t cover ongoing training either. It was just a snapshot of the initial training records for five of the members. I offered Polsom access to all of our training files during his visit, and he declined to inspect them. Also, lesson plans, skills checklists, and sign off sheets were available if he’d taken the time or interest.”

 Polsom recommends that the SRD not renew CIFFA’s contract when it expires this year, ‘until the governance and fire protection reviews are completed.’  

“I feel that it’s inappropriate and unfair to the department and the community for them to refuse to renew our contract as they’re currently doing. It makes the ongoing operation of the department much more difficult than it should be, and also prevents the board from hiring a new permanent Fire Chief. That leaves me in an uncomfortable position where I’m unable to continue running my fabricating business,  but I still have to maintain all the related overhead for the shop, et cetera, for an indefinite period because we have no certainty how long they intend to take with this process,” said McKenty. 

CIFFA’s consultant also made a list of recommendations.

“I took each of those recommendations,  looked at what we needed to implement and put together a list of what we needed to do, and when we would be doing it,” said McKenty. 

These include:

1. The Cortes Island Fire Department is updating its operating guidelines
2. Next Tuesday they will be testing the ground ladders according to NFPA 1932.
3. Ensuring all officers and firefighters have completed ICS 100 (Almost finished).
4. Drawing up a training policy for firefighters that have been absent (draft complete)
5. Ensuring there will be trained personal for Incident Command, 
6. a Team Leader, 
7. and a new driver operator when the new regulations take effect in March 2024
8. A checkoff tool for the department’s risk management function. 

Around the time that Rob Owens visited Cortes Island, CIFFA also obtained a new President.

Sadhu Aufochs Johnston was the City Manager of Vancouver 2016-21. An article in the CBC describing his departure states Johnston oversaw the activities of “more than 7,000 employees across the city, including a team of senior executives that help design and implement policy and bylaws based on council decisions.”The Vancouver SUN quoted a former co-worker, “Johnston built strong loyalty among his colleagues through actions that included supporting quality work and ‘doing the right thing’ even when it wasn’t in his own best interest to do so.”

Prior to that, he was the city’s Deputy City Manager (2009-2016) and led the development and implementation of the City of Vancouver’s Greenest City Action Plan.

He retired for family reasons. (It is quite a commute from Vancouver to Cortes Island!) CKTZ listeners will recognize his wife: Manda Aufochs Gillespie of Folk U Radio and the Cortes Island Academy.

Johnston is used to operating at levels far beyond the reach of the Strathcona Regional District.

David Leitch, CAO of the SRD, was asked to comment on the two audits of the CIrtes Fire Department but has not responded. 

This story was originally posted on March 3, 2023. Some additional material was added to the section about Sadhu Aufochs Gillespie on March 5, after a reader emailed she did not understand why he was mentioned.

Top photo credit: Cortes Island volunteers during a training exercise – Photo courtesy CIFFA

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