South Bruce Peninsula and Georgian Bluffs councils have signed a new agreement for fire protection services.
The municipalities reached a five-year agreement for the South Bruce Peninsula Fire Department to continue providing firefighting services to the northern portion of Keppel Township in Georgian Bluffs, with an option to extend for an additional five years.
The agreement comes as South Bruce Peninsula was threatening to pull its fire protection from Georgian Bluffs in early July unless the two sides could reach a new deal.
South Bruce Peninsula Mayor Janice Jackson says the old agreement was not covering their costs, so their taxpayers were subsidizing Georgian Bluffs residents for fire protection and that could not continue.
Previously, Georgian Bluffs paid a $12,000 annual retainer plus costs based on call volumes, which last year worked out to about $37,000.
Jackson says South Bruce Peninsula will now be paid a lump sum per year, with Georgian Bluffs to pay about $70,000 this year, with the figure to be recalculated each year based on a five-year rolling average.
"We made some adjustments that put our residents on an even playing field, really, I mean we're not looking to make any money, we're just looking to recover our costs," says Jackson. "We've been losing money in the last several years, so we wanted to rectify that."