BRFA reviews 2022 year with Bonnyville town council

On February 28th, town council held their meeting and Regional Fire Chief Dan Heney presented the Bonnyville Regional Fire Authority updates from 2022. 

The BFRA’s 2022 year was full of accomplishments and add-ons such as it being the first full year with a new Regional Fire Chief, Dan Heney, and the grand opening of two new fire halls in Fort Kent and Ardmore.

“A year in review for the Bonnyville Regional Fire Authority in 2022 for only the third time in it’s existence brought in a new Fire Chief,” said Dan Heney, Regional Fire Chief. 

The BFRA was also not significantly impacted by COVID precautions for the first time in years. 

A tender for the new building upgrades was released which will be the home for the BFRA, EMS, 911 operations, and administrative offices.

Six new fire trucks were ordered, including a new tanker for the town. 

Emergency calls decreased by 29 per cent with 1,391 for 2022. EMS also hired a new Division Chief of EMS, Patrick Allen. 

EMS also welcomed a new mascot, Terry the Traumasurus Rex. 

“With EMS we talked about how this year we worked hard with union negotiations, our staff at EMS had not had an increase in nine years. And so he let the council know the hard work that the BFRA negotiating team did with AHS to get that increase for our staff, that was a huge win,” said Mayor Elisa Brosseau.

The BFRA also completed negotiations with AHS to remain the local EMS provider.

“Our volunteer firefighters do 16,000 hours of volunteer work. That’s training and going to fight fires and the involvement within the community.” 

The BFRA won the request for proposal bid to provide the City of Cold Lake with 911 call answering, fire dispatching, and CPO dispatching and administrative services. 

New software upgrades for 911 call answering and CAD have started, while a second-night shift chair has been added to the 911 Centre. 

Three members of the BFRA have also been recognized with the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee medal, for their outstanding contributions to the Province. 

And the BFRA was the winner of the 2022 Outstanding Not For Profit award at the Chamber of Commerce “Resiliency Runs Deep”. 

“We are about as blessed as we come. I talk with my colleagues about the support that we receive from both our municipalities, and when I take a look at the advantages we have in being able to have service agreements with our industrial partners,” said Heney.