Yellowknife (Mar 27/06) - Mayor Gord Van Tighem is fighting back against the Workers’ Compensation Board.

He says City Hall was well on its way to revamping the fire department before charges were laid into the deaths of firefighters Lieut. Cyril Fyfe and rookie Kevin Olson.

Mayor Gord Van Tighem says the WCB is reaching too far in filing safety charges against the city in connection with the deaths of two firefighters last year. - Mike W. Bryant/NNSL photo Council will debate plea on WCB charges Mayor Gord Van Tighem said city council will decide if the city will plead guilty or not to safety charges, and the debate will be public. A complete summary of information, including the 2002 fire department operational review, and reports from the Workers’ Compensation Board and NWT fire marshal will be discussed in about a week, said Van Tighem. Council will be given recommendations from administration on how they should plea, although councillors are free to vote as they please. “With those two pieces of information council will make the decision,” said Van Tighem. “We don’t vote out of the public.” The city’s first court appearance is April 11.

“The key thing to me was to find out went wrong, and make any changes you need to,” said Van Tighem.

“But assigning blame? Nobody wins. Orders are one thing. You can work with that. It shows that there are steps being taken forward, but as soon as you get charges everything gets defensive.”

He added that a guilty verdict against the city “wouldn’t be good for taxpayers.”

The NWT Workers’ Compensation Board charged the city, fire chief Mick Beauchamp, and deputy (now acting chief) Darcy Hernblad March 10 after a year-long investigation into the shed fire that killed the two firefighters on March 17, 2005.

All three parties face two charges each under the NWT Safety Act, for failing to ensure the men’s safety and providing proper training. Each charge carries a maximum $500,000 fine and/or a year in jail.

The city has also been ordered to complete 12 safety orders within the next five months.

Van Tighem said the city carried out an extensive operational review of the fire department in 2002 that found it had a “well-defined training system for firefighters” based on National Fire Protection Association standards.

The $20,000 report was completed by Morrison Hershfield, an international engineering consulting firm.

The report also says “Yellowknife has a dedicated and innovative fire division that is providing adequate emergency response and excellent fire prevention programs despite insufficient resources.”

The resources in question mainly concerned the number of staff and dispatch capabilities. The report makes little mention of safety procedures.

The mayor said the city bumped the number of full-time firefighters up to 20 from 16 following the report, and began to address dispatch problems by bringing forward a plan for a 9-1-1 emergency phone system.

Still, after more than three years, many of the report’s recommendations have yet to be resolved, include one calling for a bylaw that would define expected service levels for the fire department.

Van Tighem said “it’s not a quick thing to do.”

He insists, however, that the city was working towards completing

them when last year’s accident occurred.

“Everything was in process,” said Van Tighem. “There were some things that happened right away, but there were other things that were happening over time.”

When asked if the city intended to use the report’s findings as the basis for a legal defence against the charges, Van Tighem said, “Good question, but I can’t talk about a court case that ain’t happened yet.”

Dave Grundy, WCB communications manager, declined to comment.

“We’re not going to discuss investigations in the media because it’s all evidentiary now,” he said.