The Calgary Fire Department has been pushing for better response times, and some city councillors believe it starts with a new standalone fire services committee.

A Notice of Motion coming to the May 5 Executive Committee meeting for technical review, calls for the creation of a Fire Protective Services Committee to help cut through the bureaucracy in Calgary Fire Department decision making.

It’s spearheaded by Ward 2 Coun. Jennifer Wyness, and co-sponsored by Couns. Mike Jamieson, John Pantazopoulos, Andrew Yule, Harrison Clark and Mayor Jeromy Farkas.

Currently, the CFD falls under the City of Calgary’s Community Services in the organizational structure, while carrying a $360 million operating budget and 2026 capital expenditure of $57 million.

According to information posted in the Notice of Motion, investment in the Calgary fire department hasn’t kept up with the pace of city population growth and has been having trouble spending its annual capital allocation. Meanwhile, response time of under seven minutes for the first engine happens in 82 per cent of calls, and effective response force of 11 minutes response happened in 75.4 per cent of calls in 2025.

Ward 2 Coun. Jennifer Wyness said that the cross-corporate nature of the Calgary Fire Department has meant delays in fire halls being delivered and services improving.

“We’re not getting ahead of the pressures on the fire department because they’re being buried across multiple portfolios,” she told LWC

 “Then you watch council at mid-cycle budget adjustment just making sort of different decisions on the floor of council to fund different pieces of the fire department without understanding how we actually keep the line of sight.”

According to the motion, “The Calgary Fire Services Committee would create a more adaptable and agile governance model that would strengthen transparency and public accountability, support more efficient capital deployment and oversight of operational needs thereby increasing CFD’s ability to meet the service level standards that Calgarians require.”

Competing interests influencing fire protection: Blayney

Jamie Blayney, president of the Calgary Firefighters’ Association, said that often with different levels of management there are competing interests in an organization.

He said the recent issue with the CFD dive rescue team is perhaps one of 10 issues that have to go through the different layers of management and not dealt with in a timely fashion.

“What it does is it essentially cuts the red tape in making sure that we react in timely fashion, where we’re staying current with trends in the industry,” Blayney told LWC.

“It just gives us a more nimble department to react to both the growing community and an industry that’s evolving every single day.”

In 2025, the Calgary Fire Department responded to more than 92,000 emergency incidents, including more than 4,700 substance related calls. Overall, it’s a roughly five per cent increase in call demand over 2024.

Wyness said the committee would operate similarly to the Calgary Police Commission, though as a standalone city council committee, rather than an arms-length body like the CPC.

She said right now, city council gets its information through updates from the fire Chief, but it’s piecemeal and often ward by ward.

“What is our strategic direction for the fire department as a council is where we have that governance breakdown, and this committee is going to help us correct that breakdown in governance while still allowing to have public input and the ability for Calgarians to speak about firefighter issues or community safety issues,” she said.

The motion calls for a Calgary Fire Services Committee Bylaw for Q3 2026, and include additional budget requirements to be considered with the 2027-2030 budget deliberations.

If approved at the May 5 meeting, it would come to a full meeting of Calgary city council for final approva.