Greater Victoria is looking at establishing a new regional fire dispatch corporation that would be jointly owned by the City of Victoria and District of Saanich.
However those aren’t the only municipalities that would benefit from this partnership as Saanich already provides dispatch services to Oak Bay, Esquimalt, View Royal, Colwood, Central Saanich, North Saanich and Sidney with the current model in place, and that is not expected to change.
“This new corporation is an exciting partnership between Saanich and Victoria. It will offer high-quality service to its clients with the aim to grow the client base across Vancouver Island,” said Victoria mayor Lisa Helps.
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The Vancouver Island Emergency Dispatch Corporation currently provides fire dispatch to Victoria and Saanich, with the latter the only dispatch centre on the Island to use E-Comm computer-aided dispatch.
“This dispatch centre will use state-of-the-art dispatch and communication technology that complies with National Fire Protection Association standards - a first for the Region,” said Chief Mike Burgess with the Saanich Fire Department.
“Moving to one integrated dispatch centre means that callers will receive a higher level of service, which is something the Saanich Fire Department is very proud to support.”
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According to a release from the two main municipalities, this idea was brought about in 2015 as a way to foster closer collaboration among the respective fire departments. While the dispatch centre will be located in Saanich, firefighters from each municipality will continue to respond to calls located within their respective jurisdictions.
