SUPPORTS ITEM NO. 5
P&E COMMITTEE AGENDA
JULY 27, 1995
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT
Date: July 19, 1995
Dept. File: FIREPROT
TO: Standing Committee on Planning and Environment
FROM: City Building Inspector
SUBJECT: UBC Fire Protection Engineering Program Funding
RECOMMENDATION
THAT City Council approve continuation of the $75,000 funding
presently in place for 5 years, starting from 1995, subject to
free City staff attendance to at least 10 course sessions per
year from the program. The source of funds for 1995 is to be
Contingency Reserve.
GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS
The General Manager of Community Services RECOMMENDS approval of
the foregoing.
COUNCIL POLICY
Council, in April, 1991, passed a resolution which effectively
provides 2.25% of all trade permit fees to fund the UBC Fire
Protection Engineering Program ($75,000 per year), and authorized an
initial contribution of $150,000.
The condition required by Council for continuation of this
contribution was provision of equal funding for the course by UBCM on
behalf of the rest of the BC Municipalities.
Approval of the above recommendation requires eight affirmative votes.
DISCUSSION
Council has been expecting that the UBC Fire Protection Engineering
Program would, by now, be fully financed by a UBCM annual grant from
dedicated permit fee increases, by Vancouver's grant and by other
industries' contributions. UBCM has fully supported this unique
program from the very beginning. Subsequently, the UBCM voted to work
with the Provincial Government to implement a mechanism whereby a
percentage of the permit fees could be collected with the goal of
providing $150,000 per annum towards a Master's Program in Fire
Protection Engineering at UBC (see Appendix A).
Unfortunately, the lack of expected funding from UBCM has had a
detrimental effect on advertising the course world-wide. An
abbreviated program finally started in September, 1994, and now the
University is hoping, by this September, to offer more courses and
seminars to the fire protection community. However, the program still
requires our annual contribution of $75,000 to continue. Since the
City is still collecting 2.25% of all trades permit fees UBC is not
requesting general tax revenue to be used for this contribution.
The University is still optimistically pursuing further funding from
the UBCM. A new letter requesting financial support has been
forwarded to UBCM to speed up their negotiation for the remainder of
their expected contributions from other municipalities. In return for
their contributions, municipalities will receive credits towards
enrolment in the Fire Protection Engineering Program and in fire
protection workshops. It is expected in the interim that UBC and
other private donors will make up the balance of the expected UBCM
funding until the total UBCM and Vancouver funding reaches $150,000
per annum.
The program is an extraordinary opportunity for local municipalities
and professional designers to develop a substantially higher
understanding of fire- and life-safety. This knowledge is directly
applicable towards simplifying Code requirements for all types of
buildings, building materials, utilities, marine facilities and
vessels, airline facilities, rail and other carriers. In fact,
because of free trade and the newer objective-based codes and
standards being introduced in the next few years, it will become
necessary for all municipalities and major design professionals to
take such courses in order to stay current with this new direction in
safety requirements.
COMMENTS OF GENERAL MANAGER, CORPORATE SERVICES
Building Permit fees have been set to collect the requested funds.
However, in the absence of UBCM funding and a Council decision to
continue support, funds have not been reserved for the program. If
Council approves this report, funding will be provided from
Contingency Reserve this year.
CONCLUSION
The availability of this program at a local institution is a real
advantage for British Columbia and, especially, Vancouver. Once such
a program has been fully established, the number of students
interested in this subject will gradually increase to the point where
their tuition fees will carry the program with limited outside
financial assistance necessary. Therefore, if Vancouver were to
continue with its contribution for the next 5 years, there is a
possibility that UBCM will still come up with funding or that other
sources of extra funding would become available and allow the program
to continue indefinitely without further assistance from us.
I further recommend that at least 10 sessions be made available each
year at no cost to City staff to take advantage of the unique
opportunities in this program.
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