13 Jan A fire service designed by know-nothings
Speaking of Tim Bousquet, his Halifax ‘Examiner has done a great job covering the fire serves debacle unfolding at HRM Council. Read his detailed account of how craven councillors (with a few exceptions) caved in to know-nothing sentiment and rejected Chief Doug Trussler’s sensible proposals for rationalizing and improving fire coverage in Dartmouth and peninsular Halifax. A sample:
Trussler is a professional fire manager with decades of experience who successfully revamped the North Vancouver fire department before moving on to Halifax. The Halifax fire department managers before Trussler were incompetent and worse, and Trussler was sincerely trying to improve the delivery of fire services. But the forest of the totality of Trussler’s proposals was lost for the tree of closing the downtown Dartmouth station, and so he became in some circles Public Enemy #1. He’s been accused of wanting to kill people. He wants to see downtown Dartmouth go up in smoke. He’s stupid. An asshole. While Trussler was giving his presentation to council yesterday, a firefighter in the gallery yelled out “bullshit!”
Councillors backed down in the face of public pressure. Several came right and out and said that they thought Trussler had a coherent and worthwhile set of suggestions that would improve fire services, but they weren’t about to approve them in the face of public pressure. Councillor Jennifer Watts went through a long list of “misinformation” put out by those opposed to Trussler’s proposals, complained that the public had unfairly vilified Trussler, and then noted that “these are complex issues,” implying that the opposition was simple-minded, before saying she’d vote against Trussler’s recommendations. Councillor Gloria McCluskey said that “businessmen aren’t emotional,” and therefore their newfound fire expertise trumped Trussler’s decades of experience.
The same thing happens whenever a school board suggests closing a school after its student numbers plummet. Nova Scotians hate change. They hate “losing” things they’ve always “had”—and to hell with modern, professionally planned deployment of limited resources. Let’s pretend we can have everything (and ignore that Dartmouth aerial truck, one of only two in HRM, that’s mothballed because the union insists on staffing redundant buildings).