MRC Pontiac hosted a public consultation meeting on its fire safety cover plan at the MRC office in Campbell's Bay on Thursday evening (November 2). CHIP 101.9 was the only member of the public in attendance.

While previous iterations of the fire safety plan have been renewed after five years, the law governing the plans has changed, meaning that this latest edition will be in force for ten years once it has been adopted.

MRC Public Safety Coordinator Julien Gagnon explained that the fire safety cover plan is a document laying out the responsibilities and capabilities of local departments, municipalities, and the MRC.

Gagnon said that one of their priorities going forward is the the sharing of services between departments. Several years ago, there was a feasibility study done that looked at various strategies for merging departments throughout the region to make more efficient use of resources. The number of firefighters in the region have shrunk since the study was produced and several departments have merged in recent years. These include Otter Lake and Thorne coming together to form the Pontiac North Department, as well as Portage-du-Fort signing an agreement with the Shawville-Clarendon Department. Gagnon revealed that Ile-du-Grand-Calumet and Bryson were finalizing their merger with the Campbell's Bay-Litchfield Department.

The draft revised plan (French only) is available here. Gagnon said that an English translation is in the works and will be available shortly. Comments can be submitted to mrc@mrcpontiac.qc.ca or by phone at 819 648-5689, ext. 242.

The draft plan is expected to be tabled at an upcoming MRC meeting for approval.