Markham, Barrie fire dispatch agreement ‘major step’ to modernizing fire protection

Move will enhance public safety and save city between $10 to $13M over next 10 years

yorkregion.com
Heidi Riedner
Feb. 25, 2022

A partnership that will see 911 emergency calls in Markham being handled by a dispatch centre in Barrie is expected to enhance public safety while saving taxpayers money.

The agreement between Barrie Fire & Emergency Service (BFES) and Markham Fire & Emergency Services (MFES) went into effect Feb. 16.

The shared service agreement is expected to help offset capital and operating costs associated with maintaining Barrie’s emergency communications and dispatch centre, while also allowing Markham to improve fire response, save taxpayers money and modernize emergency services.

“This is a major, and right, step to take to modernize fire protection,” said Mayor Frank Scarpitti during a virtual launch Feb. 23.

Markham crews will be sent out to fire calls within 60 seconds of receiving a 911 call.

The elimination of several steps in emergency calls to the Central Ambulance Communication Centre has also helped speed up response times of fire crews to accident and medical calls.

“When they enter it into their system, we can see it in ours simultaneously. We can then dispatch our apparatus at the same time as EMS service providers and now Markham will be doing the same thing,” said Barrie Fire Chief Cory Mainprize.

“When we implemented that system here in Barrie, it was about a two to two-and-half-minute difference in response times,” he added.

The agreement is expected to save the City of Markham between $10 to $13 million over the next 10 years through a combination of annual operating savings related to running its own dispatch centre and future capital costs and upgrading to Next Generation 911, said Markham Fire Chief Adam Grant.

NG911 is basically new technology that allows the public to share richer, more detailed data--such as videos, images and texts--with 911 call centers and enhances the ability of those centers to communicate with each other.

"We had some decisions to make," said Grant regarding approaching the Barrie service in anticipation of the transiion. "Do we decide our fate and invest in it or do we let the industry decide our fate."

As a result of the partnership, Markham is “way ahead of schedule” for implementing NG911, which is expected to be in place by 2024, Scarpitti said.

"We've been anticipating this moment because, you know, as time goes on and you realize there's better options out there when it comes to responding to calls, you want to take advantage of that as soon as you can," he said.

"This will certainly get the fire trucks on the roads, improve the overall handling and processing of of each call, and obviously avoid mistakes -- not that many were made -- but the seamless transfer of the information is going to help."

The City of Markham is the largest client municipality of the BFES Communications Branch, which serves 21 municipalities.

In 2020, it dispatched more than 21,250 emergency incidents.