New BrunswickMoncton’s fire chief has laid out a plan to expand the fire department over the coming years with major spending slated to start in 2027.Spending over 15 years proposed to implement recommendations to hire more staff, add 6th stationShane Magee · CBC News · Posted: Sep 24, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours agoMoncton fire Chief Conrad Landry spoke to council in July about the fire service review with members of the fire department in the public gallery behind him. (Shane Magee/CBC)Moncton’s fire chief has laid out a plan to expand the fire department over the coming years with major spending slated to start in 2027.A consultant’s review of the fire service presented to city council in July included 64 recommendations estimated to cost $285 million over 15 years.The review called for hiring 76 more staff, building a sixth fire station, relocating other stations and purchasing new trucks and equipment.Conrad Landry, the fire chief, presented an implementation plan for those recommendations during a committee meeting this week with implications for municipal budgets.”Those are significant costs, but it is public safety,” Conrad Landry, Moncton’s fire chief, told Information Morning Moncton.Many of the recommendations Landry said the department is already working to implement this year and next are administrative with no estimated cost. WATCH | Fire chief lays out plan for multimillion expansion of Moncton Fire Department: Plan for larger Moncton Fire Department presentedMoncton’s fire chief has presented a plan to grow the city fire department. The plan follows a review earlier this year that recommended hiring dozens more firefighters and adding a sixth fire station over the next 15 years. Among the first steps next year, subject to budget approval, would be hiring 10 more firefighters to staff a new medical response truck. Landry said about half of the department’s calls are medical. The new vehicle would be dispatched instead of a much larger truck. Landry’s plan calls for spending to ramp up in 2027, estimated at $47 million. Most of that would be to start construction of a sixth fire station.”As we get closer for that budget deliberation, we’re going to need to make some decisions because that’s a high number,” Landry said Monday. “So either spread it out a bit or change some a few things, but that’s what we’re proposing at this time.”The plan also calls for spending $3.2 million to buy a new ladder truck, and $677,000 to hire 20 more firefighters to staff an aerial fire truck.Landry said the city will look at installing “dry hydrants” in rural areas within or near the city in 2027. Landry said those are sites with pipes often connected to waterways or cisterns the fire department can truck water from to fight fires in areas without fire hydrants. The lack of hydrants in parts of the city, including the Timberline Road area and some trailer parks, has posed challenges fighting house fires in the past. The plan Landry presented calls for hiring 40 more firefighters starting in 2028 to staff the new fire station.Future years would see three fire stations rebuilt or relocated. Landry said two of those stations were built in the 1960s and need to be replaced as maintenance costs grow. Information Morning – MonctonMoncton fire chief lays out priorities for fire service improvements, and proposes new scooter bylawConrad Landry is Moncton’s fire chief. Steven McArthur is the owner of Move Scooter Rental in the greater Moncton area.The review presented in July says the St. George Street station should be moved closer to the St. George Boulevard and Edinburgh Drive area. The review says the Brandon Street station should remain in the Mountain Road and Mapleton Road area.The review suggests the Botsford Street station should be moved to the Shediac Road and Glengrove Road area, which Landry said would be one of the last recommendations to be implemented given Botsford is the city’s newest station.Councillors were told Monday that the $2 million staff are recommending be spent in 2026 could be included in the budget without a tax-rate increase. That’s in part because the city expects to receive around $9.1 million from the provincial government.New fees being consideredCity staff were also directed Monday to look at charging fees for repeated false alarm responses next year, similar to charges Saint John implemented. Moncton will also consider fees for responding to motor vehicle crashes. Several of the fire review’s recommendations don’t have an associated cost. That includes annual reviews of the city’s fire bylaw, having the fire chief report to city council quarterly, reviewing certain job descriptions, developing a unified emergency management plan for southeast municipalities, and developing a long-range forecast to replace equipment. For next year, the plan Landry presented calls for implementing various recommendations related to training, including increasing the overtime budget by $100,000. Landry said certain training can only be done when firefighters are off-duty, which means they are paid overtime. Another step would be to implement a post-traumatic stress disorder prevention plan. Jeremy Quillian, president of Moncton Firefighters Association IAFF Local 999, said the union welcomed the review. Landry, left, poses for photos with firefighters after the review was presented to council in July. (Shane Magee/CBC)”We’re very excited about this document,” Quillian told CBC News on Tuesday. “It’s a lot of positive outcomes potentially within it, and we are certainly looking forward to the continued conversations with the fire chief and city council.”He said implementing the review’s recommendations should help improve community safety.”We show up to work everyday to protect the citizens of Moncton, and this staffing increase will be greatly appreciated and will greatly assist us in performing our duties at a safe level,” he said. Currently, 22 firefighters are on duty per shift, below the 38 a National Fire Protection Association standard says should be part of an initial response to a highrise fire. The review’s recommendations would increase the city’s staffing to 37 per shift.ABOUT THE AUTHORShane Magee is a Moncton-based reporter for CBC.
Moncton fire chief lays out $285M plan to grow city’s fire service
