Parks Canada is looking to reduce its financial contribution to the municipal fire department in 2010.

Previously, Parks has agreed to pay 45 per cent of the department’s budget which, in 2009, equated to about $170,000.

According to the town’s fire chief, Greg Van Tighem, this percentage was agreed upon using statistics of call volumes when the municipality took over the fire department from Parks Canada.

However, Jasper National Park superintendent Greg Fenton said that at 45 per cent, Parks Canada was subsidizing other users in the park.

“Rather than continue to subsidize, because that’s contrary to the parks policy... we want to make sure we are only responsible for the reasonable portion of the cost,” he said.

But, what is a reasonable portion? At this stage, neither party is quite sure where to draw the line.

“We haven’t come up with a way to do that yet,” said Van Tighem, who has budgeted thus far on receiving 45 per cent from the park.

“We haven’t come to any agreement to what that amount would be,” said Fenton, “but it would definitely not be zero.”

One notion that has been toyed with is using the percentage of calls taken by the fire department that come directly from Parks Canada.

“It varies, that’s one of the challenges. It varied from month to month and year to year... it’s hard to use that formula because it’s kind of bouncing all over the map,” said Van Tighem.

For Fenton, the solution for making up the lost funding lies in the outlying commercial area, which currently don’t pay a fire tax like the rest of the municipality.

“Have the recipients of the services be responsible for that cost,” he said.

While no definitive decision has been made, Van Tighem said the last time he met with Parks Canada officials, it looked like there would be a 10 per cent reduction, which was better than the first offer put forward by the agency.

“Initially when we sat down we were talking less than 35 per cent, but the last time we left the room it was 35 per cent... That’s probably the worst case scenario.”

For the fire chief, the funding cuts mean there will be other claw backs throughout his budget but a 10 per cent reduction is workable and won’t impact any services.

“It’s a concern because there will be some reduction, or cuts. It will affect some of my expenditures... 10 per cent is not ideal, but it’s not going to cause us to reduce service.”

“It won’t jeopardize the safety of the firefighters or the staff by any means,” he said.

Jasper isn’t the only municipality that receives fire department funding from Parks Canada. In Field, British Columbia, the fire department is completely funded by Parks Canada. Lake Louise receives no funding from Parks for its fire service.

Manager of corporate service Verne Balding did not return calls from the Fitzhugh.