To spend or not to spend, the question before Essex town council.
Essex Fire Chief Rick Arnel is asking council to spend $40,000 over four years on training and equipment for ice and water rescues.
The requests follows an incident in January in which a man and a woman died after their car ended up submerged in the water at Colchester Harbour.
Arnel tells AM800 News January's incident didn't motivate the request for funding but is worth every penny if it saves one life.
"The value is minimal if you're able to help somebody, so we're insuring that our department can respond to such an incident and be certain that they can take care of it because they have the correct training and the correct equipment to do that job," says Arnel.
Arnel says $19,000 is the cost to maintain the current level of service, and the additional $21,000 would pay for new equipment, such as ropes, suits and an inflatable water craft.
Ward 3 Councillor Chris Vander Doelen played devil's advocate after the presentation — agreeing money for training is a good thing — but questioning the need to spend thousands on new equipment when the OPP, RCMP and Coast Guard currently respond to shoreline rescues with the town.
"We've got a flotilla of government boats out there, we don't need one,” said Vander Doelen. “Our people are already trained to deal with the ponds, creeks and ditches we have and I'm glad that they're trained and they're going to keep up the training, but I don't think we need to expand it."
The issue will come back to council for a formal debate April 1.