According to concerned Sarnia citizen George Stanko, there were serious missteps in the city’s recent purchase of a new tanker truck for the Sarnia Fire Rescue Service. He contacted The Journal with claims that a new truck could have been purchased from a company with more Canadian content for significantly less money, and on a shorter timeline.
In its February 4 meeting, based on the recommendations in a report from Fire Chief Jeff Weber, City Council voted 8-1 to approve the purchase of a new tanker for more than $1 million from Ontario-based company 1200 Degrees. This amount was already more than the $950,000 set aside in this year’s budget. Final delivery may not happen for up to 3 years.
Stanko claims that the new truck could have been purchased from Canadian company Dependable Emergency Vehicles, for significantly less. Last year, St. Clair Township purchased from Dependable two new tanker fire trucks for $786,144 each. The trucks will be delivered this year.
Stanko wonders why Sarnia is paying over $200,000 more for a truck from the U.S that may not be delivered for more than two years.
1200 Degrees is a Canadian vendor that employs 78 people in sales and service. However, the model being purchased from E-One, a Florida-based company, is fully manufactured in the U.S.
Dependable, on the other hand, would assemble the vehicle in Canada. That being said, many of the parts, including the cab, chassis, pump, and valves, would be sourced in the U.S.
In its March 31 meeting, City Council voted to amend the procurement policy to support buying local and Canadian where possible. The Canada/U.S. trade war initiated by President Trump was at the fore of these discussions. At that meeting, Council requested that Staff review the tanker purchase contract and advise if it could be terminated, and if so, whether there would be costs or penalties associated.
In its April 29 meeting, city solicitor Randi Kalar revealed that no penalty would be invoked if the purchase was terminated.
“If the contract were to be terminated, we would have to go back out to tender,” said Kalar. “It is very possible that we get the same results. It could be the same cost. It could be a higher cost.”
“There are a couple of manufacturers in the Canadian space, including companies such as Dependable,” said fire chief Weber, “...that could build the same vehicle or a very similar vehicle.” However, even if a truck is assembled in Canada, he warned, the parts sourced from the U.S. could still be subject to unpredictable tariffs.
Weber cited the high quality of E-One and how they meet the custom equipment requirements of the Sarnia Fire Rescue.
Councillor George Vandenberg suggested that acquiring the truck was a priority for safety, while praising the working relationship the City has with 1200 Degrees.
“We should buy Canadian,” he said, “but in this particular circumstance, this is an apparatus that we need now. Get it done with, for the safety of our community.”
Tanker fire trucks are used to transport water to fire scenes that don’t have nearby hydrants.
Councillor Anne-Marie Gillis interjected, reminding Council of the expected timeline of 30 months, and was even skeptical about that timeline given the disruptions of the ongoing trade war.
Given the delivery timeline from 1200 Degrees, George Stanko says, “I don’t know what the issue is with going back and rebidding.”
Council voted against reconsidering the purchase of the tanker. Councillor Bill Dennis and Councillor Gillis voted in favour of reconsidering.
Stanko has asked why the City did not collaborate with another municipality, such as St. Clair Township, for this purchase.
Weber, in an email response to Stanko’s inquiries, said that both the council-approved procurement policy and the established RFP (Request for Proposal) procedure were followed. He wrote, “the city does collaborate with other municipalities and procurement opportunities where we can for the purchase of a number of products.”
He gave an example of how the Sarnia Police Service procures their vehicles and other ways the city collaborates on purchasing.
His email also stated, “All Canadian suppliers and vendors we are aware of were provided an email of the opportunity to bid including Dependable. We only received a bid from 1200 Degrees …The bid was accepted through our bid process and approved by Council. Other vendors, for whatever purpose, decided not to bid in our process.”
The Journal reached out to Dependable’s bid process team to confirm that they did indeed receive a request for proposal for Sarnia’s fire truck purchase, and if so, ask why they did not bid on the project. We have not heard back from them at the time of publication.
George Stanko said a representative from Dependable told him he received a call from Sarnia’s purchasing department a few months ago. The representative said he returned the call but did not receive a response.
A spokesperson for the City confirms that a call was made to Dependable, but it was “to obtain some technical information that did not relate to the submission of proposals in response to the RFP, which had closed at the time of the call. We were able to find the information via another source before our call was returned.”
George Stanko has been asking Mayor Mike Bradley to use his strong mayor powers to put a hold on the purchase and investigate the procurement process. He wrote to Mayor Bradley: “I expected that you would be outraged after knowing the data that I presented and would have called for immediate action and investigation into why the purchase was made.“
Mayor Bradley was not present for the public session debate regarding termination of the contract, and declined to comment when reached by The Journal, letting the statements of the Fire Chief in his emails, and the public discussions in Council, stand for themselves.
Stanko does not feel the Fire Chief’s replies provided a sufficient response to his questions. And he says, “The Mayor has basically dismissed me. I’m frustrated as a taxpayer because you think there would be more transparency."
“It seems like they don’t want to admit to their mistakes,” says Stanko. “It seems all we’re interested in is buying something new and shiny.”