Property owners in the southern Cariboo –70 Mile House area– will be moving ahead with a proposed subscription-based fire fighting service after rejecting a TNRD proposal to join a regional district-backed fire department.

This decision follows a public consultation — where residents were asked — about a proposed referendum to have the TNRD take over the administration of the 70 Mile Fire Department – which would have been funded through property taxes.

From that meeting, TNRD Operations Manager Jamie Vierra says the group decided the 70 Mile Fire Department Association would remain responsible for firefighting services.

“(Their decision) is around costs; we knew this was going to be a challenging scenario, he explained.

“It’s not about liking one versus the other operationally, but at the end of the day, our proposed budget for the service area to take it over as a full-fledged TNRD-administered fire department—in their opinion—was too great of a tax impact.”

With that, Vierra says he understands their decision, noting the tax impact, to switch, estimated property taxes would have raised $330 per $100,000 in assessed value each year.

“I don’t dispute it was a significant tax impact,” he said, noting the cost is roughly three to four times higher than most other TNRD-administered fire departments.

“Unfortunately, that is what the numbers came out to, and we did everything we could to have a low and reasonable budget. But at the end of the day, the cost still would be pretty high per resident.”

Vierra says the reason is that there are fewer properties and assessments in the 70 Mile House area to share the costs, thus causing the price to operate, higher per person.

Starting in 2024, property taxes – previously collected by the TNRD to fund the grant-in-aid service for fire protection in 70 Mile — will stop.

Meanwhile, Vierra says the 70 Mile Fire Department Association proposed to the community to transition to a membership fees-based fire department — which is completely separate from the TNRD.

“There are other models like that in the province—one next door to them in the Watch Lake area in the Cariboo Regional District, where it’s completely separate from any property taxes or local government authority. The association has an annual membership fee that funds their fire department operations,” explained Vierra.

The 70 Mile Fire Department Association plans to have a subsequent meeting with the community regarding their proposed membership fees model.