Fire agreement with North Perth

Councillors here have approved a new fire agreement with the Town of North Perth.

Earlier this month, council passed a bylaw to authorize an automatic aid agreement for the provision of fire protection services.

Mayor David Anderson said it appeared to be a good agreement.

Minto Fire Chief Chris Harrow explained the agreement is for a five year term.

Anderson said the agreement allows for a 2% increase per year.

Harrow said the new agreement brings the cooperation of the neighbours “into the Town of Minto era.”

He said a lot of language - terms and references - was cleaned up.

Essentially, the agreement is for an area of North Perth covered by the Minto Fire Department.

He said the old wording of the agreement was related to 26% of the Palmerston Fire Department budget.

“Now that we are the Minto Fire Department, it was very hard for Treasurer Gord Duff and I to figure out what 26% of the old Palmerston budget would be.”

Harrow said the change is the amount goes up 2% per year to make it easier for calculation.

Anderson asked if the North Perth council and fire department were happy with the changes.

Harrow said they had sat down for a discussion on the issue.

As of the Minto council meeting, the item still had to go to North Perth council for approval as well.