Condition of Sudbury's fire halls 'continues to decline' report states

A recent report presented to Sudbury city council states the majority of the city's fire and paramedic stations are in poor or very poor condition.

An update was presented to the city's finance and administration committee on Tuesday. It didn't include any recommendations on what to do next, but did outline the condition of the stations.

Interim general manager of community safety in Sudbury, Joe Nicholls, says the city acknowledges there are challenges in station halls.

"Things such as not being able to fit trucks in the halls that we would like to have in those halls and other operational issues such as change room facilities,"

"This is just a wrap up into this report and we'll be coming back with a more in-depth analysis in the future."

He says steps have been taken to help, including spending $3.3 million onthe halls since 2014.

"Yet, their condition continues to decline," he said.

"Seventeen of the 24 stations fit into a category of poor or very poor condition."

Sudbury CAO Ed Archer says the information will help make future decisions.

"The information in it describes the current condition," he said.

"The information, it provides a signal that we either need to make some investments in these facilities or we need to make some choices about their sustainability."

Archer says more analysis will need to be done before any choices are made.

"If we're interested in sustaining any service levels that you set there are costs associated with that," he said.

"There are approaches to delivering the service that can vary and there are choices to make about how those variances occur but in the context ofthe inventory of buildings we have for our fire services this information simplyprovides condition information."

The report states "a capital project to further this work has been included for council's consideration in 2020 budget deliberations. The final report on this matter will provide options for council to consider regarding management and sustainability of city facilities."