St. John’s Fire Fighters President Doug Cadigan is disputing the latest statements by Minister Manning.

• While Minister Manning makes the claim that the new call centres to be set up by the provincial government will answer calls within 15 seconds 90% of the time, that is the point where the comparison to the service currently offered by the St. John’s Regional Fire Department ends. It is what happens after the call is answered that separates the service currently provided from the model being proposed by the provincial government.
• The minister in her statement has finally admitted that the model that the government is proposing are call centres.
• Minister Manning has made the statement that a higher level of service currently exists on the North East Avalon than the rest of the province and proposes the new model, rather than raising this standard in the remainder of the province, will require that the service currently offered by SJRFD to the North East Avalon be brought down to lowest common denominator.
• The people of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador deserve the highest level of service as is provided currently by the St. John’s Regional Fire Department and this is the model on which a provincial 911 service should be structured.
• The goal of implementing a province wide 911 service should be to ensure the people of this province have access to a Class 1 rated system as is the model provided through the St. John’s Regional Fire Department. Not to have it reduced to a lower common denominator.
• The concept of expending substantial monies on moving from a current Class 1 operation to a new provider is a waste of the taxpayers money and these funds would be better spent in bringing the 911 service in the rest of the province up to the level of service as provided through the St. John’s Regional Fire Department model.