WELLINGTON COUNTY – Puslinch and Centre Wellington will officially be sharing a fire chief in an effort to increase synergies between municipalities in Wellington County.
At a council meeting Monday afternoon, Centre Wellington authorized an agreement with the Township of Puslinch to share the services of a fire chief — Centre Wellington fire and rescue’s Tom Mulvey. This recommendation came from a closed Centre Wellington committee of the whole session on June 20.
Puslinch council previously passed their resolution following an in camera special meeting the past Wednesday.
Mulvey is one of five full-time staff members with Centre Wellington Fire and Rescue. He has been chief for over a year.
A press release noted this will be a pilot project for one-and-a-half years which mayor Kelly Linton noted at the meeting allows for changes to be made if things aren’t working. He stressed this will not have an impact on day-to-day operations.
Centre Wellington mayor Kelly Linton explained in an interview a consultant report from 2019 looking at municipal efficiencies found fire to be one of the areas where there could be cost savings by sharing resources between municipalities.
“We have two deputy chiefs here in Centre Wellington, so we have some bench strength right now,” Linton said. “We’ll make tweaks if we need to but it helps Puslinch out because they’re a smaller municipality that doesn’t really need a full time fire chief.”
Linton said they have already done similar agreements with human resources with Puslinch, a water risk management official with all municipalities, and an asset management technician with Mapleton. The Town of Minto and Wellington North also share a fire administration including a chief.
The mayor said a majority of the chief’s work will still be in Centre Wellington and Puslinch will pay the township for Mulvey’s time.
He noted this was not a politically driven move by council but is operationally with staff believing this is a good opportunity for some cost savings. He said there could potentially be further shared services down the road.
“We have to make tax dollars go as far as possible, so yeah, this is one way to do it,” Linton said.
