Plans are in place for the eventual departure of Portage Fire Chief and Director of Public Safety Phil Carpenter, as well as Deputy Fire Chief Dave Holmes.

Carpenter says they've selected three department members to participate in a succession management program.

"And these gentlemen are taking fire leadership programs out of Dalhousie University," he says. "They'll be going through the procedures on what we're involved with, with Council, with management, with budget, by-law enforcement, operations of the Fire Department."

One of the three members accompanied Carpenter to last night's City Council meeting. Don Robertson sees this as a natural progression in his career.

"Management is something that I've looked at very quickly in my career, that it's an end goal that I wanted," he says. "And so this opportunity's been presented, so I took the opportunity. I was fortunate enough to be selected to be part of it. We're into our second course with Dalhousie, and we're starting to see the other side of it, with Council meetings, mutual aid meetings, that sort of thing."

Robertson talks about the courses.

"The first course was in the fall," he says. "We've just started the second one. The third one will about the end of June. It's fairly intense, lots of writing papers under the new standards for papers. It's been a learning curve, but it's exciting to look at it, and take it, and be part of this process."

Brad Bailey and Chris Perry are also in the process.