Cambridge Bay (Mar 27/06) - Frustrated with the slow response to his safety concerns, Cambridge Bay Fire Chief Peter Laube has resigned.

Laube and his assistant fire chief Gordon Bligh have stepped down from their position, and are dropping the blame in the lap of senior administrative officer (SAO) Mark Calliou.

“With this SAO, things are getting out of hand. He’s trying to tell us how to perform our jobs, and is ignoring the fire marshall,” said Laube.

The ex-chief will remain as a firefighter, but will play no organizational role.

Calliou has not returned repeated phone calls by News/North to get his side of these complaints, despite being the person Mayor Michelle Gillis has designated to deal with all media requests for the hamlet.

Laube blames the SAO for the on-going safety issues in the hamlet. The firefighters came forward two weeks ago with a lengthy list of concerns, ranging from problems with fire doors to a lack of safety equipment in hamlet buildings.

Council met over the firefighters’ concerns, but are being tight lipped.

They put out a two-paragraph press release on March 21, which simply states the fire department has brought forward its concerns and that the hamlet has “an action plan and timeline.”

When asked what the action plan entails, and what is the timeline, Mayor Michelle Gillis requested that all questions be sent to her in written form, and she would respond in the same way.

But although Nunavut News/North sent Gillis the written questions, she didn’t respond to the note by the newspaper’s publishing deadline. She also wouldn’t answer questions about how much the previous council knew about the safety concerns.

Even though she was a member of that council, Laube believes that Gillis and her fellow councillors actually may not have known.

Laube has been complaining to the hamlet about safety for five years, through the former mayor and the SAO.

“All of our letters were issued to the mayor, the SAO and the council, but only the SAO responded,” said Laube, suggesting that his concerns were held from council.

After bringing up the concerns with the SAO, Laube was disappointed, but he also discovered he had one less stop on his beat. He says Calliou told him that the Cambridge Bay Fire Department is not allowed to respond to fires at airport.

When Laube raised questions about the foam in the pumper truck, he claims the SAO told him it wasn’t a problem because they can’t go to the airport anyway.

There’s only one fire department in Cambridge Bay. It would be forced to respond to an airport fire, the now-former fire chief noted.