Search for new Cape Breton regional fire chief entering third round

Nova Scotia's second-largest municipality is heading into its third round in the search for a new fire chief.

Cape Breton Regional Municipality started the search right after Bernie MacKinnon retired at the end of December.

But after interviews with the first slate of internal and external applicants, the municipality decided to advertise again, this time including trade publications.

Gordie MacDougall, CBRM's director of human resources, said on Wednesday the second round of interviews recently finished and again no one was successful.

"As a result of that, we are going to tender for the services of a recruitment agency," he said.

"They have a wide network of contacts that we don't have access to."

Last year, the organization representing volunteer fire chiefs in communities outside Sydney and the union in Sydney's career service passed separate non-confidence motions in CBRM's fire service management.

MacDougall said that is not playing a part in the lengthy search.

"We're just looking for the best candidate," he said.

"The ideal candidate obviously will have strong leadership skills and strong technical abilities, so it's an important position and we want to ensure that we have the best candidate for the position."

MacDougall said he is not worried about having the fire service without a chief for six months or more.

"We have two competent deputy chiefs there and so they're holding the fort for the time being," he said.

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