An alcohol-free fire hall in Hay River? Town council mulls it over
The Hay River fire hall may soon be an alcohol-free zone.
It would join most fire halls across the territory in banning booze. Fire departments in both Yellowknife and Inuvik have alcohol bans.
The debate is over the risk of an accident versus the risk of losing volunteers.
A consultants' report for the Town of Hay River said, "If there is a call out, on-call firefighters who have been drinking should confirm this and not be part of the response; they will typically self evaluate to determine if they can respond."
It's not clear whether this was based on information from Hay River.
Elsewhere, there have been reported cases of firefighters responding to calls or even joyriding in fire trucks while intoxicated.
According to the report, the insurance company that covers N.W.T. community governments does not specifically require alcohol be banned from fire halls, or increase rates where it is not banned — but it is possible the town would be held liable in the case of an alcohol-related incident.
But firefighters — none of whom would go on the record — say the social element of the volunteer department is a major part of why they join up, and social drinking is part of that.
When a small Newfoundland town banned alcohol in its fire hall in 2006, for example, all 17 volunteer members and the fire chief quit in protest.
Council will vote on whether to accept the consultant's report Monday night.
It's not clear when a decision on a booze ban could be made.
Correction : An earlier version of this story incorrectly said the Town of Hay River would vote Monday night on whether to ban alcohol at the fire hall. In fact, councillors will vote Monday on whether to accept a consultant's report that looked into the pros and cons of doing so.(Aug 29, 2016 4:27 PM)
