Yellowknife (Apr 28/06) - As of today the Yellowknife Fire Department will no longer offer child car seat installations or rentals to the public.

Deputy Fire Chief Chucker Dewar said the move comes as the department begins to concentrate more on its emergency response responsibilities.

"We're focusing and assessing what are the community needs," Dewar said.

The program had been in place since the early 1990s and each year, between 70-100 seats were installed in vehicles free of charge.

The department, in conjunction with Health and Social Services, rented car seats to residents or people visiting the city short-term.

Now the department is currently seeking user groups or organizations who may consider taking over aspects of the program, he said.

"As well, we may gear our efforts onto check stops with enforcement agencies to continue education on child car seats," Dewar said.

The department will still supply information about how to install the seats.

Dewar said he would like to see a new program being offered by an organization by the fall.

Training courses are required to properly install and oversee the maintenance of car seats, he said.

Pam Schlosser, a parent of two, said she was not aware the fire hall program would be discontinued, but she lauded the importance of such a community service.

"It's absolutely crucial," Schlosser said, noting she has used the program.

"We've always gone in just to have them inspected. Even after we were veterans with car seats, we still took that opportunity to go in and ask them to look it over.

"It is a valuable service and I'm sorry to hear that it won't be around any longer," Schlosser said.

In the south, the Buckle Up Bears program, operated across Canada by Co-operators Insurance since 1999, is well-received by parents needing child car seats installed, said Jayne Russell, manager of public relations for Co-operators in Guelph, Ont.

But having the program in Yellowknife presents difficulties, Russell said.

"The difficulty we would have with a location like Yellowknife is that there is little to no staff there whatsoever," she said.

"Our staff become trained inspectors and then they partner with local police or fire to bring that program to the community," she said.

Russell said having such a program in a community is very important.

"Parents do their very best to install car seats correctly, but there are so many complicating factors that make that impossible," she said of the various types of seats, cars and child sizes. "But when they come in to the clinic, often the car seat is not installed correctly," she said.

There is at least an 80 per cent failure rate of improperly installed car seats among parents, she said.

According to statistics provided by the Buckle Up Bears program, 75 per cent of crash-related deaths and serious injuries can be prevented by the correct use of child restraints.

Raynald Marchand, manager of traffic safety and training at the Canada Safety Council in Ottawa, said there are three steps one should implement before installing a car seat.

"They should check with the Transport Canada list of recalls, they should check on the installation the parent has done and they should show or help the parents install it properly," Marchand said of any program offered to the public.