Fire dispatch services for the City of Stratford will likely one day be handled by the Kitchener Fire Department.
A request for proposal has been awarded to the Kitchener FD to handle the local services with a meeting scheduled for the end of this month to determine exactly how the handover will go, an actual contract has yet to be signed between the two sides.
Stratford Fire Chief Neil Anderson says the move was made because of regulations from the Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission requiring all dispatch services to be next-generation compliant by March 2025, allowing dispatchers to receive things like texts and photos.
He says many smaller fire departments are moving their dispatch services to larger cities because of the costs involved.
“Pre-COVID we were looking at doing just that and it was almost $1.5-million.”
Anderson adds that he doesn’t expect the changeover to take place for at least another eight months.
He says residents in Stratford shouldn’t notice a difference when the service is moved to Kitchener.
