Innisfil Fire Chief to oversee Bradford West Gwillimbury service as a merger of the two is explored

BWG Fire Chief Kevin Gallant heading into retirement at the end of May

Innisfil’s Fire Chief will be pulling double duty for the time being.

Chief Tom Raeburn will serve as interim Joint Cheif of Innisfil Fire as well as that of Bradford West Gwillimbury. The current BWG Fire Chief, Kevin Gallant, will be retiring at the end of May.

While both services will operate as separate entities under the watch of one chief, both municipalities will explore whether a shared service will be of benefit. “Going forward we will have the advantage of pooling more of our resources together with the common goal of delivering an even better service to residents of Bradford West Gwillimbury and Innisfil,” said Chief Raeburn. “Already, our two fire services work very closely together and jointly respond to a wide variety of calls, so this really makes sense.”

“We know that the Province has asked all municipalities to take a close look at finding ways to provide more efficient services to our residents and this is an excellent example of how our two neighbouring Towns can do just that,” said Innisfil Mayor Lynn Dollin. “We look forward to Chief Raeburn’s continued leadership as he takes on this new opportunity to share and collaborate with our neighbours and municipal partners.”

“It’s a win-win as this is a tremendous opportunity to work more closely with our neighbours to deliver a better service while providing better value to our taxpayers,” said BWG Mayor Rob Keffer. “We welcome Chief Raeburn and look forward to exploring this opportunity together, which will ensure we continue to deliver critically-important fire and rescue services.”

Raeburn joined Innisfil Fire and Rescue in 1995 and was promoted to Chief in 2018.

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