More changes at the Fire Department have been given initial approval by Moose Jaw City Council.

A late night, in camera meeting Monday saw council approve the hiring of a fire hall office manager, they decided to leave a mechanic position vacant and continue with the changeover to the provincial 9-1-1 dispatch system. With five less staff, they expect to save $240,000 a year but some of that will go back into increasing public safety according to the motions made.

The funds will be reallocated to cover the new office manager and severance packages for the five dispatchers let go, although financial details are not being released by the city. They plan to work with the fire fighter's association on a fair deal based on past experience.

The rest will be used to update local fire trucks to handle dispatch information from the provincial call centre, the contract for the 9-1-1 call centre for the rest of 2015, a new telephone system to contact on-call firefighters faster during emergencies and to take non-emergency messages, along with a new alarm system to monitor 15 Wing Moose Jaw. All totalled, these items work out to about $130,000 in expenditures with the dispatch contract being the only annual cost, according to an email from the city.

Council also voted on a motion that was a concern for the local firefighter's association in their open letter to the city last week, staffing levels.  Union president Gord Hewitt explained that in a report, safe staffing for responding to a two story home on fire was 15-17 firefighters where Moose Jaw has 10-12 available.  Council passed a motion that says all staffing levels will be left up to the Fire Chief based on the budget approved by City Council.