You'd swear the City of Vernon ripped a page out of the Coldstream play book when it comes to handling volunteer firefighters.
Instead of including Okanagan Landing's volunteers as full partners in reviewing fire protection services for the Vernon community, a draft strategic plan was developed in January with absolutely no involvement from them and they only saw the report for the first time last week.
Such a move only fosters alienation and the feeling that restructuring of fire protection is a done deal and the volunteers will just be shoved aside.
In terms of the strategic plan, it makes sense for the city to look at the long-term needs of fire protection services including facilities, equipment and manpower. And perhaps 15 years after annexation, the Landing hall should be fully incorporated into the main operations at the Vernon Fire Department. There may even be a case to have some full-time, unionized firefighters at the Landing hall, working alongside the volunteers.
But the city must understand that this would be a dramatic shift in how services are provided, especially when the volunteers have been active in the Landing for 33 years and there is still some resentment about how the area has been treated since annexation.
The best way to handle what would obviously be a contentious situation was to be completely upfront and include the Okanagan Landing volunteers right from the beginning of the process.
With backs now up and feelings hurt, the city's goal of reviewing an essential service just got more challenging.
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