By Andrew de Souza

Fire Mentor Program cancelled

Dec 7, 2010 | 5:15 AM

The Prince Albert Fire Department’s Fire Mentor program for at-risk youth has been cancelled, paNOW has learned.

In November, members of the International Association of Firefighters Local 510, which represents the city’s fire fighters, voted for members to stop participating in the program said union president Lloyd Zwack.

Zwack said he was unable to comment on the decision at the time this article was posted.

However, documents obtained by paNOW show the some union members wanted more input into the program. As well, there was a feeling that the department’s upper management was making all the decisions and getting all the credit.

According to one person, who was present at the meeting, but asked not to be named, the decision was made by a small group.

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“The only reason that thing passed was there was a higher percentage of those radical type people that I don’t think were given enough time to make a clear decision about what would take the best route to take,” he said.

The member said normally attendance is low, but because there were enough members to make quorum, and because enough supporters of cancelling the program came out to vote, the union executive had to recognize the vote.

“By no means was it a unanimous decision. Some of those people were quite radical. There were more of them there than people that really knew how it would affect the union and the department.”

The impact

The decision has many ramifications for many different parties. The program is administered by the fire department, but requires the help of schools, the Prince Albert Parkland Health Region and several social service groups to run.

The biggest impact will be on the upwards of 10 youths considered at-risk who will be unable to participate in the program starting in January. These students are selected through the help of several health and social services throughout the community.

For Dawn Robins executive director at the Bernice Sayese Community Centre, which helps select the youths, the email she received that told her the program was cancelled was infuriating.

“For somebody to come in and not have the knowledge and background of the program and come and shut it down on their terms, without asking the questions or looking at us to adapt the program in a way that they feel comfortable—it doesn’t cut it,” she said.

“The youths are supposed to be starting in January. They all know they’re starting, the excitements there and now we have to turn around and tell them no.”

The current group of students was selected in September and were since then, engaged in counselling and training to get them ready for the program.

The cost of each student is about $2,500. The fire department began raising that money at the beginning of 2010.

Now, the students have been told they won’t be able to participate and money raised will be returned.

Money, research wasted

The program was not only enjoying success with the youths who participated, but was being recognized by a wider audience.

In 2009, Chief Les Karpluk was named Chief of the Year 2009 by the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs, of which the mentor program played no small part.

The success of the program had raised the awareness of the academic community. A group of researchers from several Saskatchewan Universities began investigating the impacts the program and the effect it was having in the community and how those lessons could be translated to other programs. That research can no longer move forward.

The Aboriginal People’s Television Network had commissioned a six-part mini-series on the program set to begin filming in January after more than a year of planning. The program had a budget of several hundred thousand dollars – that’s now been cancelled.

According to Chief Karpluk, the vote from the union is a blow to the department. While he said he respects the vote of the union, he added it still hurt a lot to have to do so.

“This is a program that’s changing lives. This is bigger than any one person — it’s about the team. This isn’t just the fire department. This is a group of organizations in this city, outside this city that support this program,” said Karpluk.

“Obviously it’s disappointing. There’s nothing better than bragging about the good your guys are doing but now I’ve got to go back and hand back the funding that I’ve already taken — that’s embarrassing and disappointing.”

Karpluk said there’s still hope that the program could be revived if the union can come to a compromise, but he said some aspects, such as the television series, maybe lost for good.

adesouza@panow.com

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