Does it make sense for a municipality that borders the St. Lawrence River to have some form of trained marine rescue as part of its emergency services?
South Dundas has recently gotten into a protracted discussion at council over maintaining the municipality’s fire rescue boat and the training that goes with it. The service had been available for 30 years.
Our municipality has over 30 kilometres of shore line along the St. Lawrence River. The Nation River is on our northern border. Both are waterways strongly promoted for tourism. The St. Lawrence supports high volume commercial traffic, as well as large numbers of recreational boaters. Additionally, this river has a fast current and is subject to changes in water levels on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis.
South Dundas is now the site of big marine events like the Renegade Bass Tournament and the annual Tubie Race. The municipality possesses two active marinas, busy public beaches, a boat launch and transient docks at Morrisburg. South Dundas Recreation’s sports library offers canoes and other equipment, specifically for enjoying the river. These just emphasize the varied marine activities locally.
Brockville and Cornwall have in-water marine rescue capabilities, either through police or the fire department. Prescott does not, but is also home to the Canadian Coast Guard base. South Stormont and Edwardsburgh-Cardinal do not have marine rescue equipment, except for shoreline rescue. The Ontario Provincial Police do have a boat stationed at Crysler Marina, but it’s not staffed. Consequently, response time to any incident on the river, where every minute matters, would be slow.
In a worst case scenario, such as a boat disabled or crashing in the shipping channel, or a nautical medical distress, presumably nearby untrained boaters or residents might try to handle the situation. However, lacking professional skills and equipment, such amateur actions might only cause an even more serious incident.
Everything has a cost. SDFES chief Cameron Morehouse stated that if the rescue boat were to continue, that there would be more firefighter training required. If our neighbours had marine rescue capabilities, it would make sense to partner to save on cost. But, they don’t. Cancelling marine rescue would create a large gap between Brockville and Cornwall where only minimal service for this area would exist.
Is this a risk that South Dundas, a river community, should take?
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