This continues the transcripts of proceedings at the regular general meeting of the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District was held on July 2nd, 2025.
Q+A: Fire Chief’s Report
TRUSTEE DIANA MOHER asked if the chief could share something giving a sense of the effect on the community by being first responders and EMRs dealing with things like CPR calls. Chief Sprogis: “I think Gabriola has seen now about 11 saves,” and noted a recent cardiac arrest that off-duty firefighters were able to attend within a few seconds.
TRUSTEE OLIVER BUSSLER: On the call volume report section, I recall back in October last year, you had changed the response matrix, you were doing a pilot program where only the duty officer would respond to certain calls, and I think you would provide, routinely, updates in terms of the impact that was having. And I haven't heard that in a while, so I just wanted to confirm that that's still being used, and how long do you plan on running that [?] program?
CHIEF: We were actually just going to discuss that in the last officers meeting, but we were called away for the whole officers meeting callout. We're trying to determine that. The big thing moving forward is there's been no ill effect of doing it. We haven't noticed any bad patient care. So that's the big thing we're looking at, is to make sure there’s no delays in patient care or, [?] response seems to be reporting quite well. The big difference now is, of course, we have our alpha ambulance that is responding. […] But of course, we get into our busy season, and we can see 3 or 4 calls coming in in an hour, and then our alpha car is pulled away on the first call, and the Kilo, which is the car that's responding by pager, can be pulled away on the second call, leaving the first responders [unintelligible] to the late call. So that's when we call out for more first responders.
TRUSTEE BUSSLER: And have you consulted with BC Ambulance on the impacts?
CHIEF: Yeah, we consulted with the unit chief there, and yeah, they're very happy with the way it’s working. […]
TRUSTEE BUSSLER: …EMR versus FR [ED: Emergency Medical Responder vs First Responder] protocol, are you tracking how many, how often the EMR scope is being used on these calls?
NOTE: Licence Categories explains the levels referenced.
CHIEF: Yeah, we’ve been tracking on the patient care report.
TRUSTEE BUSSLER: And are you finding EMR protocols being used?
CHIEF: Yeah, we're noticing that the capability is definitely there. It's definitely nice to have on site, especially when you don't have to use it. We have a lot of things, just the other night, it was nice to have epinephrine ready there to go if the patient did go into anaphylactic shock. It's a key part of keeping our community safe. It’s nice to have those extra tools at hand.
TRUSTEE BUSSLER: On the upcoming events you note potential deployments. I'm just again, I haven't seen this in the minutes, but what apparatus are we —so that's the wildfire deployments—what apparatus have we nominated for that? And how is it approved by the GFPID—again, I'm new to this—when we send apparatus off island?
CHIEF: I believe it was made in a former motion that it was upon a written request that apparatus could be, could respond. And for the apparatus that is on the deployment list, currently number 11, number 4 is on that list as well. We have a Titan 3 Wildland engine which could be 5 or 3 potentially.
TRUSTEE BUSSLER: This is just on a go forward basis on staffing and budget considerations. One thing that I think would be beneficial is to just have some numbers around how many firefighters we currently have. So just from a staffing perspective, because it allows us to, it gives us financial perspective in terms of costs, obviously, and also kind of effectiveness, how it changes over time. So what I was thinking here is just basically incorporate into your staffing.
CHAIR: I that feels like it's getting maybe a little into the weeds for the public meeting. So what I'm going to suggest is, whether or not you participate in some of the reviews of policy and things like that generally, that might be the time to make those suggestions, so that we don’t put anyone into a position where they need detailed numbers and statistics off the top of their head, which I can't do. I feel like it's easy to get bogged down in details. [some unintelligible back and forth but agreement was expressed by Trustee Bussler]
TRUSTEE MOHER: At the school we’re required to have first aid on site, what requirement do you guys have when you attend scene?
CHIEF: Just WorkSafe requirement that all [?] do a risk assessment to determine how risky it is in terms of how many—
TRUSTEE MOHER: How many?
CHIEF: How many first aiders— [unintelligble]
TRUSTEE DAVID CHORNEYKO: You said you're looking at the full time position for Assistant Chief, what's the status of that?
CHIEF: Well, it was brought forward to the board, then it was taken—it’s in the process of being taken to the Finance Committee.
CHAIR: So my understanding … was that in the prior Chief’s report, the Chief … had made sort of a general request that that capacity would be a benefit to the department. And then an exploration of that suggestion was taken up by the finance committee, but then not a lot of work got done because there was an election and things going on. So it's, yeah, it's been referred to Committee, but not taken up in depth. […]
TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: Fair enough.
As videos of the meetings are generally posted online within a week of the meeting on the gabriolafire Upcoming Meetings page, GFPIDchronicles will not transcribe all details of meetings. Our reports and transcriptions include:
- Questions asked and answered
- Procedures relating to matters that were some way contentious, with fact-checking on statements made
Notes on the transcription: repetitions and redundant words have been removed. Other excised sections are noted with […] and any text which could not be made out is indicated with [unintelligible] or [?]. Any added comments on or descriptions of the proceedings are italicized, or if made inline are indicated by [ED:]. When interjections are made by audience members they are quoted but no attempt has been made to identify particular people speaking.