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    Veteran firefighter resigns for new job

    Lauren McKeon
    Northern News Services
    Published Wednesday, August 27, 2008

    SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - On Monday, longtime Yellowknife firefighter Lieut. Mike Lowing became the tenth firefighter to announce his resignation from the department this year.

    Lowing, a Yellowknife firefighter veteran of 24 years, will officially quit his full-time position on Sept. 5. His resignation comes on the heels of union head Lieut. Craig Halifax's Aug. 13 departure. Halifax was a vocal critic of the city's handling of the fall-out from a 2005 fire which left two firefighters dead.

    However, unlike Halifax, who's left to take a position in the Calgary area, Lowing will stay with the department in the paid/on-call capacity.

    "I haven't really left the department completely," said Lowing. "I've just left career employment."

    His new full-time career will be with Diavik as a superintendent of health and safety (operations).

    "It's a tremendous opportunity," Lowing said.

    "It's our loss (and) the mine's gain," said fire chief Albert Headrick. He added the fire department is not the only organization in the city losing staff, especially to the lure of the mine.

    "They have a very good paying package ... when you look at it, at the end of the day, you have to go with the best package," said Headrick.

    The department is currently on a major recruitment drive after losing more than a third of its firefighters since the beginning of the year. Headrick is hoping to boost the paid/on-call division from eight to its full compliment of 20 - and then look at further recruiting the most promising of those to full-time staff.

    "We're truthfully going to really miss him," Headrick said, adding with Lowing gone, there will be only one firefighter left with 20-plus years experience.

    Asked about the turnover at the fire department, Yellowknife Mayor Gord Van Tighem said, "people always get concerned with turnover rates, however turnover can also be a healthy part of rebuilding."

    Van Tighem added while the increased turnover at the fire department is a cause for concern, the important thing is to react to the indicators behind that concern. In this case, concern "needs to be factored into the way that training happens (and) the way that recruitment happens."

    "What's occurring right now has been building for a period of time," he added, referring to the loss of senior firefighters in recent years.

    Van Tighem also recalled meeting Lowing when he first came to Yellowknife as a "bank person," back when the mayor was working as a bank manager.

    "His enthusiasm was contagious." And it's that enthusiasm the fire department needs to recapture, the mayor said. "We really need to rekindle that type of spirit."

    "We went through a rather catastrophic event three years ago, but that's three years ago. So let's get on with the way things need to be," he added.

    Lowing denied low morale at the fire department - often said to have arisen at the department since a 2005 fire left two firefighters dead - had anything to do with his resignation.

    Lowing also said while it is challenging to leave an organization after investing so many years into it, "it's not as hard as some people might think it is."

    "Basically you've been saying goodbye," he added. "Well, I'm the tenth person to leave here this year. So while it's hard, it's also somewhat easy with the turnover that we've had."