Rising fire service costs push Pontiac toward shared model
Sophie Demers
Local Journalism Inititiave
Published in the Pontiac Journal on September 10, 2025.
MRC PONTIAC – The provincial government is encouraging smaller municipalities to join forces to provide fire services to residents. This, along with a small change in the Fire Safety Act, has led Pontiac municipalities to consider consolidating some of the 18 municipalities’ fire departments to provide quicker, cheaper services. According to
Quebec’s Ministry of Public Security, the costs of fire services have increased by 420% across the province.
Discussions are in the early stages. There will be multiple consultations – including with the public – before a decision is officially made.
Some municipalities already have contracts that consolidate their fire services such asShawville/Clarendon/Thorne, Campbell’s Bay/Litchfield/L’Île-du-Grand Calumet/
Bryson, as well as L’Isle-aux-Allumettes, Chichester, and Sheenboro. Mansfield has proposed a similar arrangement to Waltham; no agreement has been signed, but both municipalities are open to discussion.
Julien Gagnon, head of public security at the MRC Pontiac, explained last March’s update to the Fire Safety Act. “It states municipalities are responsible for ensuring that, for any given address, the quickest fire department is mobilized,” said Gagnon, noting there’s a difference between closest and quickest. Many small municipalities have volunteer fire services, which means firefighters travel from their homes to the fire station and then to the fire.
The new provincial map details which department is quickest for each address. By law,
this means municipalities may have to rely on other municipalities’ services.
The discussions between Waltham and Mansfield have led to many residents voicing concern about the possibility of their local fire station closing. However, Waltham
Mayor Odette Godin told the Journal there are no plans to shut down Waltham’s station.
Larry Perry, Waltham fire chief, has been with the department for 53 years; over 40 as chief. He disagrees with the potential merger: “We have a very good system. In situations where you need more resources, you call on your neighbor to bring in their resources and add them to yours. It’s kind of like an insurance policy and it works very well,” said Perry. “By consolidating these departments, you start losing all of your municipally-
organized and financed services that are vital to the community, and you place them somewhere else, so you’re exchanging tax dollars for someone else to make decisions on your behalf.”
Pontiac Warden Jane Toller and Gagnon confirmed there’s no plan to close stations. Gagnon notes there are three fire stations in the region that L’Isle-aux-Allumettes, Chichester, and Sheenboro work together to service.
“There shouldn’t be closures of any fire halls as long as there are firefighters associated with that fire station,” said Gagnon who said consolidating fire departments into four main centres would function much like a larger city where there are multiple stations that work together.
“We have 18 municipalities that all have a wonderful history of fire services; there’s no
plan to close any fire halls. In fact, equipment could still be in all of the 18 halls,” said Toller. The original assessment of finances found about $7 million could be saved by sharing
services.
Toller explained that smaller municipalities don’t have the funding to buy new equipment and fire trucks when needed. Consolidating could solve this problem.
“At the end of the day, we need to think about the taxpayers first, and guarantee any plan adopted will have fast response times, excellent coverage in terms of the amount of equipment and firefighters needed, and be affordable without causing tax hikes,” she concluded.
