A new report to St. Albert city council says in 2022 city staff sent one of the city's two aerial fire trucks to auction — netting just $46,000 — despite council unanimously approving a motion in 2016 directing administration not to sell the truck.
The truck, which the city purchased in 2009 for about $1.15 million, was plagued with mechanical issues — costing the city over $350,000 in repairs between 2010 and 2015 — and council voted to replace it in 2015 with a new truck for $1.47 million. Although council approved the replacement, Coun. Sheena Hughes put forward a motion in the fall of 2016 directing city administration not to sell the troublesome truck, and instead keep it as a backup unit as aerial fire trucks, which have an extendable boom lift to help fight fires on upper floors or perform rescues from heights, are specialized pieces of equipment that can save lives.
“When the decision to sell [the truck] was made in 2022, administration was unaware of the council motion due to time elapsed and motion tracking over time,” reads the new report to council, which was written by the city's fire chief and director of emergency services Everett Cooke, as well as Tom Kumka, the city's fleet manager.
“The decision to dispose of [the truck] was made after an evaluation of the fire service fleet was conducted,” Cooke and Kumka wrote. “The assessment included reviewing the status of the current fleet, approved and anticipated replacement apparatus, realizing the costs associated with maintaining each unit, as well as confirming external resources that may be available to St. Albert, should the need arise.”
“At the time of the review, [the truck] was not operational and required at a minimum more than $101,00 in immediate repairs. This apparatus was also due for a mid-life inspection which was felt could result in another $50,000 in costs.”
Given the results of the fire service fleet review, the report explains, administration sent the truck to auction, where it was sold for $46,000. In 2015 administration estimated that the truck could be sold for as much as $500,000, however, the estimate was later reduced to between $120,000 and $300,000 in November of 2016.
The report also explains that part of the decision to sell the truck was due to the city knowing it could depend on fire departments in nearby municipalities to respond to emergencies in St. Albert with their own aerial fire trucks if the need arose.
“Of the 24 participating members of the [Capital Regional Emergency Preparedness Partnership, or CREPP] no less than 10 have aerial apparatus,” the report states. “Thus, any risk is mitigated through regional collaboration.”
“As an example, the City of St. Albert activated the CREPP agreement on May 6, 2021 in response to the Citadel Mews fire. When requested, five aerial apparatus from partner agencies responded to St. Albert's request.”
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The report notes that the troublesome fire truck that was sold a year later was not able to respond to the Citadel fire because it was out of service.
In an interview, Coun. Sheena Hughes said she understood how a motion from 2016 could be forgotten about over time and through staff changeover, but she was still disappointed.
“The motion was a little unusual in their defence — normally we don't tell them not to sell something — so I could see where it would not be expected from staff to go through [years of previous motions] and not see it,” she said. “That being said, I'm still very disappointed that that fire truck was sold.”
“It looks like with $150,000 in repairs, it would have been completely up to snuff and be able to have life still in it for many more years to come.”
Hughes also said she understands the security that St. Albert's membership in the CREPP provides, but she still questioned why St. Albert shouldn't have their own backup aerial unit to respond to emergencies.
“I understand that we have an agreement with other towns but it takes time for those towns to come over to our location, and when you're trying to fight fires, every second counts,” Hughes said. “[The truck] was due for a mid-life inspection, which means it was halfway through its expected life, and we sold it for $46,000 because we had $151,000 in costs.”
“We had many more years of life still left in it, and it was not sold at auction at its true value in my opinion.”
Marta Caufield, the city's director of legal, legislative, and records services, said in an email that administration has developed a new process to keep better track of motions over time in response to this situation.
“This new process is not a new software, but rather a collaborative spreadsheet that contains a listing of all motions passed, back to 2012, which is populated by Legislative Services on a weekly basis after council and committee meetings, and is used by the executive leadership and leadership team to track progress of work related to motions passed by council,” Caufield said.
“Leadership at the city is now expected to consult this spreadsheet and provide updates to track progress over time.”
