Over the past year, the Oro-Medonte Fire and Emergency Services (OMFES) has made numerous strides to stem dissatisfaction among its volunteer firefighters, something that was identified as a major concern in an audit of the service one year ago.
According to Roree Payment, who was appointed the township’s fire chief on Feb. 6, replacing Ralph Dominelli who held the role for the past year, the efforts are paying off.
A recent call for applications generated 64 resumes, which is the highest number of candidates the local fire department has ever received, and resulted in hiring 24 new people.
“The dissatisfaction rate of our volunteers was very high,” Payment said of the audit during an interview following a fire and emergency update presentation to township council last week.
“The study illustrated a lot of failings, but also showed there was the possibility for growth and improvements," he added. “Just showing our members they matter, just treating them in a way that showed they were valued, was enough to make a difference."
The audit, which was presented to township council last January by KPMG LLP audit partner Oscar Poloni, provided the fire and emergency service with a dozen areas for improvement.
At the top of the list was volunteer satisfaction and engagement, which Poloni said had experienced “significant erosion.”
Close behind were concerns with training, communications, recognition and advancement.
According to Payment’s presentation, the fire and emergency services has been working to address the following issues:
- Department unification (in progress)
- Improve communications between volunteers and chiefs (complete/ongoing)
- Review effectiveness of workplace employment program (complete)
- Senior officer involvement at emergency calls (complete)
- Improve attendance at training and emergency calls (complete/ongoing)
- Overall improvement of training (complete/ongoing)
- Improve revenue streams (complete)
- Create fairness and equal opportunity across department (complete)
- Volunteer firefighter compensation review (in progress)
- Officer development (in progress)
- Standard operating procedure update (in progress)
- Improvements to day staff model for peak period response (complete/ongoing).
“One thing that was focused on (in the KPMG report) was department unification,” Payment said during his presentation. “There’s been a great deal of work done to break down silos and to unite the department into one fire department across the municipality versus five fire departments as it seemed in the past.”
The same amount of effort has gone into improving communications, he added.
Payment pointed to a number of initiatives that have been instrumental in bringing the team together, including a new ‘Chief’s Chat’ newspaper, an increase in department memos (34 were sent out in 2024 versus one in 2023), a children’s Christmas party, an awards banquet and a vehicle standardization committee.
“As part of the whole unification process to bring the department together, we put out a sign up and had an individual from each station come out and make the trucks all the same,” Payment said. “It doesn’t sound like that big of a deal, but I can assure you there was a lot of work and effort that went into getting that done and the group did a fantastic job.”
Relying on input and action from its volunteer base has made the OMFES better and more efficient, Payment said. He pointed to the elimination of the workplace employment program (WEP) as evidence that management is on the same page as its volunteer workforce.
A training program offered by some fire departments to recent fire academy graduates, WEP allows them to gain practical firefighting experience on the job under mentorship from experienced firefighters, essentially serving as a stepping stone toward a full-time career. The training typically involves participating in regular shifts, training sessions, and various firefighting duties to build skills and knowledge.
According to Payment, the township was investing about $180,000 in the program, but was not realizing an equal benefit.
“We would start out with six or seven of them at the start of the year — we’re training them, giving them a lot of education, a lot of opportunity and making them very desirable to career departments — and we end the program with three out of the seven,” the chief said. “It’s not the most beneficial investment we can make.”
Moving forward, Payment says it will be investing those money in its volunteers.
“Regular volunteer staff is now receiving the training opportunities, updated training and certifications and they’re going to stick around,” Payment said.
He closed out his presentation with an update on the training and certification Oro-Medonte firefighters have been receiving over the last year as it was a key concern in the KPMG audit.
Poloni said the majority of the township’s volunteer firefighters do not currently have the certifications required to meet the mandatory requirements.
He said the deadline for compliance will be July 1, 2026.
“We have an aggressive training plan for 2025,” Payment said. “I won’t go into details, but at the end of the day, there aren't many months there that don’t require some form of training or additional work from our firefighters.”