Fire Halls Seismic and HVAC Amendment
Motion 7 · Council Meeting, July 16, 2026
Summary
- Proposed adding funding to accelerate seismic upgrades and HVAC replacement at additional fire halls beyond the two addressed in the capital plan.
- Mover noted that of 19 fire halls, seven are considered higher seismic risk; only four will be substantially addressed across this and the previous plan. Approximately 12 halls require HVAC upgrades at roughly $2.5 million each.
- Opponents argued the plan already provides for two new or upgraded fire halls (including a new four-bay Fire Hall No. 2 on Alexander Street) and that the overall investment trajectory is appropriate, with further halls addressed progressively in future plans.
Vote
Transcript
7 segments
Okay. All right. Back to the main queue. Councillor Maloney. Thank you. I circulated also an amendment about fire halls, and I would like to move that amendment, which I will just get to. So fire halls one and two are already considered in the plan, as we heard. This amendment endeavours to ensure provision of essential services after an earthquake, especially as fires are more likely to arise due to the release of methane gas in buildings in case of an earthquake, but also the general medical services provided by fire services. And the latest modelling from the city showed that due to building risk alone, we could have more than 1,300 severe injuries after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake, meaning that emergency responders will be urgently needed. And I think we could do more to be prepared and not leave some neighbourhoods to effectively be more at risk. due to potentially slowed down emergency services response. I'll take you to an amendment queue. You've already given your rationale there, but I want to see if we have anyone to speak to the amendment. I'll put you on there first, Councillor Maloney. You've done that. Okay. Can I just advance Councillor Kirby Young?
Second. Okay. Councillor Kirby Young?
Yeah, thank you. We're just starting, and my timer's at three minutes. It's a new queue.
Can we reset that?
Thank you. Okay, here we go. I think we've got some little glitches today, but hopefully we'll hit our stride. I appreciate this huge proponent of upgrading our core and primary facilities. I think, again, we have to remember that we are on the right trajectory here of 19 fire halls that we have. We had seven that are seismically at risk. Two have been addressed in this current plan. capital plan that we're concluding into the upcoming plan. That's a pretty good ratio, at least three. It's very similar to the community centers that I said earlier. Council has been investing in the right things, and we just need to keep going to get towards completion. In the capital plan, we're just concluding, we've got the renewal and expansion of the downtown south fire hall number eight, which is under construction, and renewal expansion of Grandview fire hall number nine, with construction in 2027. And then in addition, in the upcoming plan, we'll have a new fire hall number two, desperately needed, which would be a new four-bay, 18,000-square-foot hall at Alexander to serve the very busy, unprecedentedly busy one area of the downtown east side. And then we've got a seismic upgrade planned as well for fire hall number one. And so... That is, I think, particularly important here. I think what we need, council needs to kind of keep our eye on the ball is that, again, we're really shifting back to renewing our aging infrastructure here at a rate much higher than we ever have before. It's about 70% of the plan. We're putting the money into the core things that the city of Vancouver is responsible for, including public safety and other issues, other areas such as parks and recreation and public space. And if we include this, then we have to take away from something else. And I think that there's been a really a pretty solid process around identifying what those priorities are. If I felt that the fire department was shortchanged, I would be the first one to sort of put my hand up and say that. But actually, our fire hall is going to be in pretty good shape overall. And I think we've been... building them quite well. We've also looked at opportunities for things like co-location. We had the one sort of in southeast, for example, that also put in daycare. So I'm convinced that our staff will continue to look for other funding opportunities, but I think what's been put in this plan can actually get built and delivered in the next four years. Thank you.
Councillor Maloney? Yeah, I mean, I appreciate Councillor Kirby-Young's comments. I generally feel like we're not prioritising seismic preparedness enough in this plan and I've made that view clear on a number of previous occasions. I didn't elaborate on the fact that we've got in this proposed amendment maintenance and rehabilitation of fire halls HVAC systems as well. I generally would prefer to see our fire services in a position to provide to Vancouver's residents in the event of an earthquake rather than potentially being injured themselves due to the lack of seismic preparedness of our fire halls. So for me, this is a really big priority. I recognise that we have... There's been council direction... about priorities in the capital plan. I haven't always agreed with those priorities. And for me, this is a very, very big one. So I'll be voting in favour of this. Thanks. Okay. Clerk, can you take us to the voting panel, please?