CBRM fire chief walks away from council members arguing over recruitment report

Four senior staff members of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality Fire Department walked out on councilors during a committee meeting on Wednesday.

The fire chief and three of his employees left amid a dispute sparked by a committee member who questioned the contents of a personnel report on efforts to recruit and retain volunteer firefighters.

Councilors were disappointed and surprised by the move.

count. Steve Parsons said the chief may have thought the questions were inappropriate, but that was yet to be determined.

“For him to stand up and leave this committee meeting I think is somewhat embarrassing, unethical and should be challenged,” Parsons said.

count. Darren O’Quinn agreed.

“It’s our job to ask uncomfortable questions,” he said.

“Our residents bring this to us and we are the go-between. And if we can’t ask those questions, we’re not doing our job.

“That was totally disrespectful what just happened here, and I just want to say I don’t support that at all. I think it was a bad, bad take on CBRM.”

count. Gordon MacDonald said a personnel report he requested did not answer his questions about recruiting and retaining volunteer firefighters.

He asked Fire Chief Michael Seth about that at the committee meeting and said Deputy Chief Chris March, who wrote the report, agreed that the paper was incomplete.

MacDonald continued to question the chief, and then Seth and his senior staff packed up and left.

MacDonald said he was disappointed and plans to apologise.

“I’ve never seen the head of a department walk away because they asked a few questions,” he said.

The fire chief did not respond to a request for comment.

Deputy Mayor James Edwards, who chairs the committee, said he will discuss the matter with the mayor.

Keep no problem: deputy sheriff

MacDonald’s first request, submitted in November 2021 and approved by the council, asked for a report on what was being done to recruit and retain members of volunteer departments, and whether any programs or incentives to recruit new firefighters were being considered.

The deputies issue paper was written in January 2022, but was only presented to the committee at the beginning of this year.

In it, March said volunteer firefighters usually quit when age or ability became an issue, so retention didn’t need to be addressed.

He said recruitment is generally difficult across Canada and CBRM has 34 volunteer emergency services responsible for their own recruitment.

March recommended giving the administration formal authority to take over recruiting for all departments and created a multipoint plan that would help them, including through traditional and social media campaigns and public events.

MacDonald told the committee he was looking for suggestions, such as recruiting posts on CBRM tax bills and on buses.

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