If suspended firefighter Josh Montgomery is going to get an apology, it won’t be from Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto.
Alto stated emphatically Friday during a press conference that she had nothing to do with the Victoria firefighter’s one-day suspension and took the opportunity to remind Premier David Eby — who suggested the apology earlier this week — that local government affairs are not his bailiwick.
“I will say that I am extremely disappointed that any provincial premier would feel it appropriate or necessary to make a comment on what is clearly an operational personnel matter of a local government, particularly, as I believe he has said, since he is not in complete possession of the facts,” Alto told reporters.
“Secondly, I will say again, as has been said on my behalf, I had nothing to do with any decisions made by the fire department, either operationally or with regard to personnel. Nor would I. It is not my expertise and I have absolute confidence in the leadership of the fire department, as I do in the leadership of the city, to make whatever decisions they feel necessary in the best interests of the city.”
According to International Association of Firefighters Local 730, which represents members of the Victoria Fire Department, Montgomery was suspended one day – on Friday — due to the opinions expressed in a letter he sent to the premier.
Montgomery had been part of a protest at Victoria City Hall last month over the city’s role in establishing a facility at 2155 Dowler Pl. to help connect people living on the street with housing, and he wrote a letter to the premier asking him to step in and stop the Dowler Place project.
In his letter, written in the aftermath of a first responder being attacked on Pandora Avenue, Montgomery said first responders like him are seeing an escalation of aggression from individuals using social services.
The Pandora incident saw a paramedic assaulted while attending to a patient. The assault led to police and other first responders being swarmed by about 60 people. In response, paramedics and firefighters announced they would no longer go to medical calls in the area without police.
Earlier this week Eby responded by saying no one should face suspension for writing to the premier’s office.
“No one should face consequences for writing to me and if that’s the reason he was sanctioned, then he deserves an apology and back-pay from the person responsible,” Eby said.
Alto refused to weigh in on the suitability of the suspension.
She said she has “absolute confidence in the fire chief and the department and the decisions that they make on behalf of the city and their ability, amazingly, to respond when we need them most.”
She would not comment on the opinions expressed in Montgomery’s letter, but did say “as every person has an opinion, they have a right to express it.”
Alto would not say who was involved in making the decision on the suspension.
“I can say that I was not involved and to my knowledge no one other than those folks who are properly involved in any informal procedure were involved,” she said.
Victoria Fire Chief Dan Atkinson did not respond to requests for comment, and a city spokesperson noted the chief is a city employee and the city does not comment on personnel matters.
Montgomery did not respond to requests for comment.
Members of the North Park community, where the facility at Dowler Place is located, used Friday’s press conference to confront the mayor on the project.
One resident noted they have struggled to get information from city staff or the mayor herself about how the facility will operate and what effect it might have on the neighbourhood.
North Park business owner Firmin Wyndels said they deserve answers and so far have been met with little information and no consultation on the social services project.
“I don’t live on that street, but I operate a business on that street. And I know if I lived on that street, I would be terrified, as anyone should that has a family,” said Wyndels. “Everyone will hope that it will open up to be a very cleanly run operation. But the reality is we’ve seen where these social services have deteriorated around here and we just don’t want our basically family-oriented neighbourhood with a couple businesses attached to the end of it turning into anything we’ve seen happen in other areas of town.
“It’s just this fear, and I wish it wasn’t a fear, but it’s the fear of the unknown, of what’s going to happen to the community.”
The mayor committed Friday to sitting down with the community to discuss the project in the next three weeks.
