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ENTERPRISE
The community of Enterprise sits right on Highway 1 and that location makes some people – including hamlet council – wonder if it might be an ideal site for a highway rescue unit.

Enterprise Fire Chief and Deputy Mayor Craig McMaster, left, and Mayor Michael St. Amour, who is also on the fire department, stand next to the community's fire truck. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

The idea arose again at the Jan. 21 meeting of council when members discussed a letter from the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA). The letter informed the community that $40,000 in GNWT funding is available for highway rescue.

"We have no rescue equipment," said Enterprise Fire Chief Craig McMaster, who is also the hamlet's deputy mayor.

McMaster said it has not been determined whether the hamlet's fire department will seek to develop highway rescue capabilities, noting there are many issues to consider.

"We need to think about it really seriously before we step forward," he said.

McMaster noted $40,000 would not be enough to launch a highway rescue service.

"Not even close," he said. "It's just a drop in the bucket."

The fire chief estimated a first-response vehicle could cost anywhere from $100,000 to $200,000, and that would just be the beginning of the expenses.

"There's no sense having that equipment. You need to be trained on it," he said. "The training costs a lot of money."

However, McMaster noted there are different levels of response the department could provide, such as incident stabilization, First Aid, triage or traffic control.

Enterprise is not considering offering an ambulance service.

As for whether the Enterprise Fire Department, where membership varies between eight and 10 firefighters, can take on the extra duty of highway rescue, McMaster said it would take a lot of commitment from volunteers.

Plus, he said attending a possibly gory accident scene is much different than fighting fire. "Not everybody can do it."

Highway 1 north and south of Enterprise is currently covered by ground ambulance and highway rescue from the Hay River Fire Department.

Hay River Fire Chief Ross Potter said his department covers to Fort Resolution, to the NWT/Alberta border, halfway to Fort Smith, halfway to Fort Simpson and to Fort Providence.

At the end of Highway 2, Hay River is 38 km from Highway 1, which is the main route into the NWT.

Potter said he supports Enterprise getting involved in some capacity with highway rescue, but he has some concerns, including the relatively low number of members in the Enterprise Fire Department and the resulting potential problems with risk management.

The Hay River Fire Department may send six to eight members to a highway incident, including extrication personnel and medics with the ambulance. That is from 30 volunteer firefighters, half of whom are trained for highway rescue.

"When I send a crew out to do a highway rescue where my highway vehicle is travelling with the ambulance, I still have a full crew available in Hay River for a fire response or for an ambulance response or for both," Potter said.

In general, he believes having Enterprise responders closer to an accident scene on Highway 1 would be beneficial.

"You've got a golden hour in which to take care of a patient," he said. "Typically, the sooner you can get to that patient the better off you are."

Potter said that, for the Enterprise Fire Department, that might mean starting First Aid to stabilize patients.

Mayor Michael St. Amour said Enterprise had inquired in late summer about funding to establish highway rescue, before receiving the MACA letter about the $40,000 in available funding.

St. Amour said Enterprise would require much more capital funding to launch a highway rescue unit, and would have to research exactly how much would be needed.

"I don't know how much the courses cost," he said. "I don't know how much the equipment costs."

St. Amour is the only person on the Enterprise Fire Department trained in vehicle extrication.

The mayor believes eight to 10 volunteer firefighters are enough to offer highway rescue, adding he thinks they would be willing to be trained.

Terry Testart, the hamlet's senior administrative officer, said a lot of analysis needs to be done.

"We're definitely not ruling it out because we recognize it is an important service," he said. "But we have to see whether Enterprise has the capacity to do it and what equipment we would need to do it with."

Testart added a small fire department like in Enterprise can offer a varying level of response.

"If it's a low enough level of response, Enterprise could do it with the right equipment and the right training," he said, noting it could be First Aid until emergency responders arrive from Hay River.

Kevin Brezinski, director of the public safety division with MACA, said the $40,000 in annual funding is available under the Ground Ambulance and Highway Rescue Services Contribution Policy.

"Fundamentally, it is us working with our partners, most notably Health and Social Services, to provide funding to community governments to support training and capital upgrades for ambulance and highway rescue services," he said.

The MACA official said communities looking to set up a highway rescue service could use the general funding they receive from the GNWT.

"They receive quite a volume of annual operation, maintenance and infrastructure funding that they can use to plan for something like this," he said.

Brezinski said the size of a community and its fire department determines whether a highway rescue unit can be established, and the scope and nature of that service.

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