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Report to: General Committee Report
Date: January
26, 2009
SUBJECT: Amendments to By-Law
111-98 as Amended by By-Law 2002-181
PREPARED BY: Bill Snowball, Acting Fire Chief, ext. 5982
RECOMMENDATION:
That the report
titled Amendments to By-Law 111-98 as Amended by By-Law 2002-181 be received;
And that By-law
111-98, as amended be further amended so as to invoice the full amount of the
fees for services provided by the Fire
and Emergency Services Department to the “at fault vehicle owner” only;
And that By-law
111-98, as amended, be further amended substantially in the form attached here
to as Schedule “A”;
And that Staff be
authorized and directed to do all things necessary to give effect to this
resolution.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Not applicable
PURPOSE:
The purpose of
this report is to provide information to Council related to the proposed change
to By-Law 111-98 as Amended by By-Law 2002-181 for the purpose of streamlining
the related administrative process.
BACKGROUND:
In June 1998 the
Corporation of the Town of Markham
enacted By-Law 111-98 a “By-law to charge fees for services provided by Fire and Emergency Services for Emergency and
Non-emergency Incidents.” This By-law was enacted to assist Fire and Emergency Services in the recovery of costs
for responses to emergency and non-emergency incidents as outlined in the
By-law. This By-law was in addition to By-law 37-96 “A By-law to Charge Fees
for Administrative Services” and By-law 307-97 a By-law “For the Registration
of Two – Unit Residential Occupancies” which were also enacted to recover costs
associated with Fire Service activities.
Pursuant to By-law 111-98, when a motor
vehicle incident occurs and Fire and
Emergency Services attends at the scene of an incident, the fees incurred are
charged to all vehicle owners involved regardless of establishing fault. Our current invoicing procedure is that the
total amount of the invoice is divided by the number of vehicles involved and
an invoice is produced for each vehicle owner involved. This means, in most
cases, producing and issuing two or more invoices.
OPTIONS/ DISCUSSION:
As an E3 initiative the Fire
and Emergency Services, Finance and Legal Departments conducted a review of the
procedures to recover the costs incurred by Fire
and Emergency Services attendance at Motor Vehicle Incidents as outlined in
By-Law 111-98 as amended. The Town’s
current practice, in accordance with By-law 111-98, is to send an invoice to
all vehicle owners involved in the motor vehicle incident regardless of
establishing fault. The current fee for fire apparatus attending a motor
vehicle incident will remain unchanged at $350.00 per apparatus (to a maximum
of 3 apparatus) for the first hour and
$175.00 per apparatus for each additional ½ hour, the fee is waived if the
apparatus is committed for less than 10 minutes. The fee is currently split
equally between the vehicles involved in the incident, under the proposed
amendment the fee would be the responsibility of the “at fault owner” which is
consistent with how insurance companies make claims payments. The owner may
pass the invoice on to their insurance company if they choose.
The Finance Department’s consultation with
other municipalities revealed that invoicing only the “at fault owner” for the
full amount of the services had the benefit of a higher rate of recovery than Markham is currently
experiencing. Therefore based on the
experiences of other municipalities, it was identified that invoicing only the
“at fault owner” could improve the rate of recovery and reduce the work load
currently required to invoice all owners involved in the motor vehicle incident
as outlined in By-Law 111-98.
It is recommended that By-law 111-98 be
amended so that the “at fault” vehicle owner be required to pay the full amount
of the fee for services provided by Fire
and Emergency Services. The “at fault”
vehicle owner is usually identified as the vehicle deemed to be at
fault by the Police and which is noted as vehicle number 1 on the Police Report. Should this be determined to be incorrect, the
Town will then invoice another vehicle owner involved in the incident
which Fire and Emergency Services
deems to be “at fault” based on the information available.
FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS
Based on the
revised criteria recommended to the by-law there is minimal impact on the 2009
Operating Budget.
FINANCIAL TEMPLATE
Not applicable
ALIGNMENT WITH STRATEGIC PRIORITIES:
Not applicable
DEPARTMENTS
CONSULTED AND AFFECTED:
Legal
Finance
RECOMMENDED
BY: ________________________ ________________________
Bill Snowball Brenda
Librecz
Acting Fire
Chief Commissioner,
Community &
Fire Services
ATTACHMENT:
A By-law to amend
By-law No. 111-98,
As amended by
By-law 2002-181