Debbie Higgins, Deputy Fire Chief at City of Toronto

Claus Rinner: Greetings, Debbie. You are Deputy Fire Chief here in Toronto. How would you describe this position?

Debbie Higgins: The Deputy Fire Chief position is second in command of the Fire Services, directly under the Fire Chief. It is a senior administration, operations and leadership position, where I assume responsibility for continuous development and improvement of divisional services. Toronto is the largest Fire Service in Canada, and the fifth largest in North America, with 84 fire stations; 124 front line emergency vehicles; and over 3,150 staff. The Executive Management Team consists of a fire chief and five deputy fire chiefs, each with a specific portfolio. Since my promotion to Deputy, I have been responsible for three different portfolios, including Staff Services and Communications; Fire Prevention and Public Education; and currently Professional Development and Training and Mechanical Maintenance.

CR: What specific responsibilities does this current portfolio entail?

DH: My current portfolio gives me overall responsibility for the following sections within Fire Services: Professional Development and Training, Special Operations Training, Health and Safety, Emergency Planning, and Mechanical Maintenance, including the marine unit. These sections comprise a total of 96 staff with an annual operating budget of approximately $27 million.

My primary responsibility at a very high level is to provide strategic and operational direction for the effective management and more efficient use of resources in the delivery of the services within my portfolio. And of course, because we are an emergency service, I also participate in on-call rotation with the other deputy chiefs, overseeing the entire Fire Services for a continuous period of one week (outside of normal business hours), on a rotational basis throughout the year, including the requirement to act as Senior Incident Commander for significant fires and natural disasters where Fire Services is the lead emergency response agency. This includes being assigned as required to the City's Emergency Operations Centre when larger scale emergencies (such as the 2015 ice storm) affect the City.

CR: Do you feel that your University education in Geography continues to support your work functions?

DH: Absolutely. Not only can I tie my career success back to my education at Ryerson, I can certainly see where skills I developed during my university years continue to play a role in my everyday life. There are so many examples I can provide, from as "simple" as station location analysis to the very in-depth assessments done in the area of risk-based planning.

We have a division in Fire Services that is specifically tasked with GIS functions and data analysis. We do a significant amount of data analysis, and mapping, using layers of information from both internal systems and from other city divisions and sources (e.g., City Planning, Stats Canada, etc.). This is used for things like determining future station locations, optimizing vehicle locations, and risk based resource location planning (people, vehicles and equipment). We incorporate many aspects of city development, including building stock, population densities, social demographics, transportation patterns, etc.

In addition, we have a policy development section that has recently completed a Fire Master Plan, and is currently working on a Standards of Cover document as part of the accreditation process for CFAI (Commission on Fire Accreditation International).

CR: Are there other Geography-relevant jobs at the Toronto Fire Services?

DH: Yes, we also have an Emergency Planning section that works on issues related to significant events in the city, like the Pan Am Games, as well as smaller annual events including Pride, The Molson Indy, Taste of the Danforth, etc. All of these events require emergency response routes to be customized to allow optimized response times in the face of temporary transportation barriers. We do a significant amount of work with Metrolinx and city transportation authorities with respect to street widths, right-of-ways, bicycle lanes, traffic calming measures and other impediments to the movement of large emergency response vehicle.

CR: What did your career path look like, after you graduated with a BAA in Applied Geography from Ryerson in 1989?

DH: My path has been a little unconventional (for fire services), but it all connects to get to where I am today. Following graduation with my degree in Applied Geography I started work with a consulting firm, doing parks and recreation master plans, feasibility studies for new municipal sporting facilities, environmental studies – all of the things I had focussed on during my studies, and exactly what I thought I wanted to do with my life! But the world of consulting is difficult, and after almost five years the company eventually folded – the partners went their separate ways and I moved into the municipal sector, where I really found my niche. I began working with the City of Mississauga, where I was a parks planner. The City started to run into revenue issues with its parks and recreation facilities, so they decided to form a new unit in the Community Services Department, called Business Planning. I moved over into a position in the new unit, and promptly enrolled at McMaster to do a business degree part time. Over the next few years the role of business planning expanded, and I was assigned to work with the Fire Department to help them through the business of collective agreement negotiations and other such projects. It got to the point where they were my only client, so I decided it was time to move on… after all, I was now a business person, and who would ever take me seriously if all of my experience was with Fire? That's when I moved to Toronto. I accepted a job in the Finance department, and ended up as the budget analyst in the Fire department. So much for good intentions! That was in 1999, and in early 2000 I moved to a position in the Fire Chief's office. In 2003 the Chief converted my position from civilian to uniform to give me opportunities for advancement, and in 2010 I was promoted to Deputy Fire Chief.

CR: What would you tell our current students in terms of career preparation?

DH: I always tell people to never close themselves off from opportunities – you never know what life has in store for you! The path to Deputy Fire Chief from BAA in Applied Geography may not seem logical, but without that base of learning in an area I was very interested in I never would have had the chance to start on this interesting and rewarding career path!

CR: Debbie, thank you very much for your time and for helping us explain how Geographers keep the City safe!