Council has authorized contracting the services of Thornton-based Fire Marquee Inc. to provide emergency response cost recovery services for the township.
At the July 22 meeting, council authorized entering an agreement with the company, despite the objection of councillor Neil Driscoll, who feels the process will result in increased insurance premiums for some taxpayers.
Fire Marque representative Chris Carrier told Mapleton council at its June 24 meeting that most property insurance policies include fire department expense recovery clauses.
“You do require some work to unlock the coverage,” said Carrier adding the program would not generate extra paperwork for the fire department beyond standard incident reports being done anyway.
Fire Marque charges 30 per cent of fees recovered and the company estimates Mapleton could generate about $14,000 in revenue, after the Fire Marque commission.
In a report to council on July 22, Fire Chief Rick Richardson recommended council take advantage of the opportunity.
“Fire department operations are almost exclusively funded through taxation, and traditionally there have been very limited opportunities to recover expenses incurred as a result of providing fire protection services,” he stated.
“Most insurance policies provide coverage for an insured property owner for a number of ‘insured perils’ including provisions for fire department expenses in varying amounts. Municipalities have not had the expertise or resources to initiate claims for cost recovery from insurance companies, but recently Fire Marque Inc. has developed Indemnification Technology, a program to assist in accessing monies available through insurance companies by initiating claims on behalf of the municipality.”
Richardson told council he has spoken with chiefs of fire departments who have used the service and were pleased with the results.
“People who have tried to recover these costs without going through Fire Marque, they haven’t had much luck. They haven’t had much success at all,” said Richardson.
He noted that payment to the fire departments involved “in no way affects the claim of the individuals who may have suffered a loss.” Payments are not deducted from those due to the policy holder, and the policy holders premiums are not affected by such claims, he stressed.
“How can it not affect our premiums?” asked Driscoll, who also questioned how the company would collect for fire calls to properties owned by Mennonites.
“Half of our agricultural population does not carry conventional insurance,” he pointed out.
“They (Fire Marque) do not go to the self-insured people,” responded Richardson.
Driscoll wondered why the fire department needed to recover costs of responding to fires at all. “Are we in a position that it’s costing us money beyond the taxes that we pay to go out and fight fires? Then why do we need to re-collect that money?” he asked.
Richardson explained, “Insurance companies have money in their policies for fire response. We’re just not recovering that (currently).”
Driscoll then noted, “For them to get 30 per cent for the work that you do, to me that seems like a lot.”
Mayor Bruce Whale said, “Until we kind of get the process in place, it’s better to use someone that has all the knowledge. It gives us another avenue to try to recover some of those costs from people that use the service.”
“We’ve already paid for those services,” insisted Driscoll.
“We make sure the service is available. If in some way we can recover some of that cost, why wouldn’t we do it?” Whale wondered.
Councillor Jim Curry pointed out insurance companies “are collecting a premium and not giving us anything back. I say we go ahead with it.”
The motion to enter into a contract with Fire Marque passed with Curry and councillor Andy Knetsch in favour and Driscoll opposed. Councillor Mike Downey was absent from the July 22 meeting.
