Ormstown to hire a full-time fire chief, rewrite emergency plan
At the 8 September sitting, council opened a staffing process for a full-time director of the fire safety service and hired a consultant to rebuild the municipal civil-security plan in four phases.
Two decisions taken minutes apart on 8 September reshape how Ormstown answers an emergency: who runs the fire department day to day, and what the municipality does when a disaster is bigger than one fire.
A full-time director for the fire service (item 4.3). The chair framed the position as a compliance obligation before a staffing preference. The laws, regulations and ministerial orientations that govern municipal fire services have become steadily more prescriptive, he said, and the MRC du Haut-Saint-Laurent has adopted a schéma de couverture de risques en sécurité incendie that Ormstown must apply — which in turn requires the municipality to produce and carry out a plan de mise en œuvre (00:47:44). The stated objective was the safety of both firefighters and residents, with the caveat that the work involved is substantial. The mayor and two councillors, sitting as council’s representatives on the civil-security committee, met the department’s officers and crews twice in August to go through these files (00:47:44).
Council also received an internal report on fire-service tasks and responsibilities which, according to the chair, concluded that full-time direction of the service is necessary; council judged it necessary to staff the post full-time to ensure continuity and sound management of the service (00:48:33).
The resolution as read authorizes the Direction générale to run the staffing process in accordance with the municipality’s policies and procedures — to post the position, screen candidates, hold interviews and bring a recommendation back to council — and authorizes it to set the administrative conditions attached to the post, including remuneration and benefits, within the municipality’s policies and budgets. The director general was authorized to sign any document required (00:49:20). No councillor was heard voting against. The salary range was not stated in public; the final resolution text will be confirmed in the minutes of the sitting.
A complete rewrite of the civil-security plan (item 8.2). The municipality wants a full revision of its emergency-measures plans so they are modern and matched to current conditions — the plans that guide the municipality in protecting residents and property during a disaster or major crisis (01:02:48 · 01:03:36). Several firms were approached and one offer was received, from Prud’Homme Groupe coopératif, dated 20 August 2026, to accompany the municipality in revising and producing its municipal civil-security plan. The work proceeds in four phases: standing up a municipal civil-security committee — the chair said the people who will sit on it have already been designated — a visit of the territory, a risk analysis, and production of the plan itself (01:03:36 · 01:04:24). Fees were given as $23,393 plus tax. Council accepted the offer and authorized the director general and clerk-treasurer to sign the service contract; no councillor was heard voting against (01:05:10).
The commitment a resident obtained. During the second question period, which is restricted to agenda items, a resident raised item 8.2 and noted that civil security is one of the narrow exceptions under which a Québec municipality may communicate in a language other than French — alongside health and natural justice — and asked that everything communicated to residents under the new plan be available in both French and English. The mayor said he was taking note of the request and would do it if it can legally be done, confirming that civil security falls among the exclusions while saying the municipality would verify before acting (01:32:36 · 01:33:21).