Town of Yarmouth Contracts Fire Dispatch Services to Digby

Effective January 30th, emergency dispatch services for the Town of Yarmouth will be provided by the Municipality of the District of Digby Emergency Dispatch Centre

Wednesday, January 23, 2019 - Yarmouth, N.S. -  At Wednesday morning's Committee of the Whole meeting, the Town of Yarmouth approved a proposal to contract emergency dispatch services to the Municipality of the District of Digby Emergency Dispatch Centre. Council voted unanimously to outsource the service to Digby, with the change of service effective January 30th.

After efforts to find a fair and effective cost-sharing model were exhausted, the town was faced with finding a new provider for the service. The goal was to find a dispatch centre that could deliver a comparable level of service, at a lower cost to taxpayers. Outsourcing the service to Digby meets this goal and places the service with an experienced and capable provider.

"We were pleased with all of the proposals put forward, but in the end, the offer from Digby checked off every single box", said Yarmouth Mayor Pam Mood. "We chose carefully. Our Fire Chief engaged with them on all potential issues and visited the centre to ensure a suitable fit. We're comfortable that Digby will provide us with a dependable dispatch service that will work closely with our Fire Department to ensure smooth communication, and most importantly, the safety of our residents and businesses."

Digby Dispatch Supervisor, Bruce Snell, said, "Digby Dispatch has a highly trained staff with excellent infrastructure dedicated to timely and accurate dispatch of fire departments. Once a fire department is dispatched, we closely support them until they are back at their hall. We look forward to working with the Yarmouth Fire Department and providing a high level of emergency dispatch services".

The move to Digby will see considerable savings for town taxpayers. In comparison to the current net cost of $160,000, the service will run an annual cost of $5600 based on call volume. ​

All previous users of the Yarmouth dispatch service will be switched over to their new provider by January 30th. The majority of users that have switched also chose Digby for dispatch services. When the changeover takes place on January 30th there will be no interruption in service. However, residents and businesses who rely upon private security companies for fire alarm monitoring must contact their provider to advise that they cannot contact Yarmouth Dispatch for emergency response as of January 30th.

As the changeover to Digby approaches, the Town of Yarmouth wishes to thank its current dispatchers for their many years of dedication and service to their community.

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Current customers advised of imminent shutdown of the service as union rejects final effort to keep dispatchers employed 

Monday, January 14, 2019 - Yarmouth, N.S. -   The Town of Yarmouth has issued notice to all remaining dispatch customers that shutdown of the service is imminent after negotiations with the International Association of Firefighters Local 2094 recently broke off. In a final effort that would have gradually phased out the service and kept the dispatchers employed, an offer was issued allowing them to  take on new roles as firefighters. The union rejected the proposal, which included wage increases and mandatory retirement at the age of 65.

This latest offer in a string of efforts to either maintain the service using a fair cost-sharing model, or keep the individuals employed, was put on the table with hopes of yielding positive results. Although the town has clearly committed at this point to discontinue the dispatch service with the model that was in place, this offer involved phasing out the service and keeping these individuals employed within the department. Had the offer been accepted, they would have stayed on as dispatchers for a time, then switched to even better paying positions. But the union rejected the offer and provided no room for further discussion. 

No specific timeline has been set for the shutdown of the service and layoff notices have yet to be delivered. Important work continues this week to ensure all previous customers have new dispatch service safely in place. Work is also underway on a number of key logistical items, including station and equipment upgrades needed to meet the requirements of outside dispatch providers. Once work is completed, the service will be handed over to the new service provider.