In a year of change for Lloydminster Fire Rescue, the service’s bylaw is next up for updates.
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The bylaw was presented for council review at the May 11 Governance and Priorities Committee meeting.
“Following a recent review, several areas of Bylaw 08-2024 were identified as requiring updates to enhance clarity, ensure legislative alignment and reflect current industry standards,” said Fire Chief Bill Heesing.
A number of areas received updates through the bylaw review, including penalties, but for Heesing, education remains a priority.
“It’s important to stress education remains a core focus of the Lloydminster Fire Rescue Services team,” he said. “In most instances where an individual or organization is found to be in contravention of the bylaw, education efforts and voluntary compliance are a priority, with warnings typically issued prior to the enforcement and assessment of any fees or penalties.”
Updates to carbon monoxide rules in the bylaw also caught attention as Lloydminster Mayor Gerald Aalbers asked how the new Henry’s Law would impact the city locally.
“Lloydminster follows the National Fire Code and the National Building Code. The National Building Code speaks to carbon monoxide alarms. They call it Henry’s Law, which just came out,” explained Heesing.
Heesing said they would review the law to determine how it would affect the national code.
“At the end of the day, it’s about safety, as you outlined and working with our community and helping people be as safe as they can be,” said Aalbers.
Henry’s Law requires all residential suites in Saskatchewan, regardless of their location in a building, to have a carbon monoxide alarm installed. The change in regulations is named in honour of Henry Losco, who died from carbon monoxide poisoning in Regina in December 2025.
For the fire rescue services bylaw in Lloydminster, installation of lockboxes in the city is continuing. Under the penalty portion of the bylaw, a fine of $1,000 could be levied against those who fail to comply with lockbox requirements. Heesing said fining people would be a last resort for the fire service.
“This will be education. If we went there and said, ‘We recommend you put on a lockbox,’ and we give you two weeks to a month to comply, and if we go back in a month and you’re not compliant, it’s just continuous time. There’s some give and take back and forth,” said Heesing. “If you absolutely refuse, this would be our last step to enforce it.”
Added to the bylaw is a section stipulating, “No person shall permit a false alarm to occur at any property within the City of Lloydminster.”
A false alarm in the bylaw is defined as any fire alarm that is set off needlessly. Although the first false alarm offence does not carry a fine, a second false alarm could result in a $250 fine.
For Heesing and the department, it is not about the fines.
“If the due diligence is there, and the business owner is doing their repair work, and there’s the records and here’s the calls, it’s a conversation. It’s education and that’s what we’re after,” he said.
“The other thing that happens, if we go to, I’ll say, an apartment building, we’ll go to floor one today and we’ll go to floor two tomorrow. It’s the same address, same panel but different reasons. It’s education to that apartment owner, education to your residents or your occupants about what they can do or shouldn’t do.”
The item is expected to return to a future council meeting for a decision.
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