SUPPORTS ITEM NO. 4
P & E COMMITTEE AGENDA
MARCH 14, 1996
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT
Date: March 6, 1996
TO: Standing Committee on Planning & Environment
FROM: General Manager of Fire & Rescue Services
SUBJECT: Vancouver Fire/Rescue Services -
Application for B.C. 21 Grant
RECOMMENDATIONS
A. THAT Council authorize additional funding of $770,000 for the
development of the Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services Training
Centre, for a total budget of $3 million assuming receipt of a
grant for $1 million for the B.C. 21 Community Projects
Program; source of funds to be an advance from Revenue
Surplus, to be repaid from the Fire Protection section of the
1997-1999 Capital Plan.
B. THAT Council approve the 1996 allocation of $160,000 from the
1993-1996 Capital Plan for the training site, in advance of
the 1996 Basic Capital Budget.
C. THAT Council authorize application for a grant of $1,000,000
under the Provincial B.C. 21 Community Projects Program to
assist in development of the Vancouver Fire and Rescue
Services Training Centre at the revised budget of $3,000,000.
D. THAT Council authorize the General Manager of Fire and Rescue
Services and the Director of Legal Services to execute all
necessary and ancillary documents and agreements in connection
with making application for, and if successful, taking receipt
of the grant funds.
E. THAT expenditure of the additional funds authorized in this
report be conditional upon receipt of $1 million from the B.C.
21 program.
GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS
The General Manager of Fire and Rescue Services notes that
competency training to certifiable standards that will be available
through the new training facility has been a high priority of the
Department's strategic plan and follows the recommendations of the
Citizens Advisory Committee. Council has already given approval
for construction of the site. Authorizing additional funds now for
the full project will allow the City to make application for
provincial money under B.C. 21 Community Projects Program.
The General Manager also notes that the Fire Training Site is not
the department's first priority for capital funding from the 1997-
1999 Capital Plan. However, given the opportunity to access
provincial cost sharing for this project and the expectation that
some level of City funding would be approved in the next capital
plan, it is sensible to advance the project at this time, and the
General Manager RECOMMENDS approval of the foregoing.
COUNCIL POLICY
The City plans its capital expenditures over a three year period which
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coincides with the term of Council. The 1996 Capital Budget, to be
considered by Council in early May, 1996, will complete the 1994-1996
Capital Plan. Development of the 1997-1999 Capital Plan will take place
over the next six months leading to borrowing requirements being put to
plebiscite in conjunction with the November civic election.
The Vancouver Charter requires that expenditures approved by Council be
fully funded. In situations where project funding is anticipated in a
subsequent Capital Plan, Council has approved interim funding from
Revenue Surplus.
Council has approved a number of projects where funding grants and
assistance are obtained from other levels of government:
- on January 25, 1995, Council approved the development of a Urban
Search and Heavy Rescue Team contingent on receiving funds from the
Federal Joint Emergency Preparedness Program;
- on May 3, 1995, Council approved participation in Industry funded
W.C.B. Technical High Angle Rope Rescue Program. Training,
purchasing of equipment and formation of teams is currently being
undertaken by Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services;
- on June 18, 1993, Council approved a partnership with VanCity
Credit Union for funding assistance in the purchase of automatic
electronic defibrillators for use with cardiac emergencies.
PURPOSE
The purpose of this report is to seek Council approval for an
application to the B.C. 21 Community Projects Grant Program for a grant
to assist in construction of the Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services
Training Site. In order to support the grant application, Council is
also requested to approve additional funding for the Training site in
advance of the 1997-1999 Capital Plan.
BACKGROUND
The 1994-1996 Capital Plan includes $5,650,000 for fire protection
purposes including provision of new or replacement communications,
training facilities and firehalls. Of that amount, $1,230,000 was
approved for Phase I of a new fire training site (see Appendix D).
In August, 1994, Council approved the relocation of the fire training
site from the south foot of Main Street to the east end of the
Burlington Northern property that had been purchased for relocation of
the Cambie Yard and for park purposes. The location is indicated in
Appendix A.
The funding in the 1994-1996 Capital Plan provided for only the first
phase of the new fire training site. Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services
intends to request funding for phase II of the project from the 1997-
1999 Capital Plan now under development. Including the cost of the
land, the phase I and II costs of the facility are estimated in the
range of $5.5 million.
Phase III of the training site will be a permanent classroom building.
At present, the Fire Department has installed a temporary training
building on the west side of Chess Street, property intended to be used
for an Engineering works yard, replacing Cambie Yards. Construction of
this building will be a joint initiative of Engineering and Fire,
perhaps with the participation of Park Board which has its works yard on
adjacent property. It is not expected to be a priority in the next
capital plan.
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In the 1994 and 1995 Capital Budgets, Council approved most of the
funding for design and phase I construction of the training site. The
balance of the funding is to be included in the 1996 Capital Budget. A
project team was created and development permits approved. PBK
Engineering Limited was hired to design and oversee construction of the
site. Construction will begin in May, 1996 with completion of phase I
scheduled for the end of 1996.
DISCUSSION
Subject to approval in the next Capital Plan, phase II of the training
site project was to include construction of additional training props.
Appendices B and C presents a budget and description of this work and a
site plan is included as Appendix D. When completed, the site will meet
current training needs of the fire department by providing a unique
training field on 2.2 acres, designed to simulate a wide variety of
emergency situations typical of commercial, industrial and residential
properties. Appendix E gives a comparison of training acreage utilized
in a number of North American Fire Services, with our proposed site
certainly falling within the lower levels of the range. The average
site comprises 10.3 acres.
The overall intent is to provide Fire and Rescue Staff the means to
develop and maintain critical skills essential to the safe delivery of
life safety services to certified standards. In areas of skills
maintenance a scenario based training and assessment process will be
used. The centre will also provide the required facilities for:
- specialized teams (Haz-Mat, Heavy Urban Search and Rescue,
Technical Rope Rescue) maintenance training;
- certification of emergency vehicle operators and auto extrication
instructors along with appropriate staff training;
- development of a Trench Rescue Training Program along with a pilot
program to certify technical rescue staff;
- training of Heavy Urban Search and Rescue Non-Fire Team Members in
Hazardous Material Awareness;
- programs to certify and re-certify suppression staff in Emergency
Medical Response Level III along with competency assessments for
all Automatic External Defibrillator staff;
- programs to certify suppression rescue staff to Confined Space
Rescue Technicians;
- training programs for Emergency Response Teams;
- Officer and Command Officer Training along with ongoing training of
the Battalion Chiefs in Incident Management; and
- training and certification of Senior Firefighters to Company
Officer.
Provision of training facilities for a large City Fire Department such
as Vancouver, necessarily requires a development which will have some
unused capacity. This provides opportunities in four areas:
- Many city agencies and programs, including the Neighbourhood
Emergency Training Program and the Heavy Urban Search and Rescue
Team, will be able to take advantage of the facilities at the
training site. It is intended that Police, Fire, Engineering and
Community Teams will participate in joint emergency exercises to
improve the City's response to real incidents.
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- Use by other Fire Services and Provincial training agencies such as
the Provincial Emergency Program and the B.C. Fire Academy. Access
to the site by these groups for training purposes will improve the
overall emergency response in the community and allow the operating
costs of the training site to be shared for specific courses where
we have excess capacity.
- Use by Vancouver City Police for a portion of their ongoing
training needs.
- Use by private industry on a cost recovery basis.
The City will be pro-active in providing a first class, professionally
managed training site, which will address City needs and will assist in
forming strategic alliances with other emergency service agencies and
industry to reduce our costs. The result will be a better quality of
training for City staff and better communications and coordinated
service delivery in emergency response situations involving agencies
outside the City.
B.C. 21 GRANT APPLICATION
Broader access to the training site would also make the development
eligible to be considered for cost sharing under the B.C. 21 Community
Projects Program which was created by the Province to assist local
government and non-profit organizations in investing in the future of
their communities. Grants of up to one-third of total project costs to
a maximum of $1,000,000 are available through the program.
Provincial government staff and elected officials were receptive to a
City application for cost sharing for the training site. A grant
application provides an opportunity for the City to access provincial
capital funding thereby reducing the municipal contribution otherwise
required for the next phase of the training site.
We are pursuing a rapid time line as the first phase of construction on
the site is scheduled to start in May 1996, and construction cannot
begin until they are in receipt of our application.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
Appendices B through C describe a training facility project with a cost
estimated at $2,986,000, together with contingency of $14,000 rounded to
$3,000,000. This excludes the cost of purchasing the site on Chess
Street at a cost of approximately $2.5 million, which will be rented
from the Property Endowment Fund until funds can be provided for its
purchase through a future capital plan. The Fire Department currently
has $1.07 million available for construction of the training site.
Funding of $160,000 is scheduled in the 1996 Capital Budget, bringing
the total available funds to $1,230,000. This report seeks conditional
approval for additional City funding of $777,000 in order to forward the
B.C. 21 grant application for $1 million. Expenditure of the additional
funding would be conditional on the approval of the grant application.
If the City is successful, the B.C. 21 grant funding for the training
site would be as follows:
1994-1996 Capital Plan
allocated $1,070,000
1996 provision 160,000
Additional City funding 770,000
B.C. 21 Program 1,000,000
Total $3,000,000
Should Council support the request for additional funding, the following
actions are recommended:
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- Council approval of the 1996 allocation in advance of the Basic
Capital Budget, ($160,000).
- an advance from Revenue Surplus to be repaid from the proceeds of
the grant ($1,000,000) and from the 1997-199 Capital Plan
($770,000).
A funding request for phase II would normally have been submitted for
consideration in the 1997-1999 Capital Plan review process, along with
other requests from Fire Services and requests from other departments.
In advance of a complete review of capital submissions, there is no
certainty that this project would be considered of sufficient priority
to have been included in the Plan that will be recommended to Council in
September. However, the opportunity to obtain Provincial funding
justifies advancing the project now.
CONCLUSION
Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services is currently in the process of
developing a new training facility. When completed, the training site
will provide emergency response training opportunities for City staff as
well as for staff from other fire services, emergency organizations and
industry. To assist the City with the financing of this endeavour,
Council's permission is being sought to make an application for a grant
under the B.C. 21 Community Projects Program. In order for the grant
application to go forward, additional City funding of $770,000 must be
approved for the project. It is recommended that this funding be
provided as an advance from Revenue Surplus to be repaid from the 1997-
1999 Capital Plan, and that the expenditure of the additional funds be
conditional on approval of the B.C. 21 grant application.
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