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While Saint John Fire Chief Rob Simonds has been explaining why his department needs more time to cut costs, City Hall is advertising for preliminary design work on a new fire station.

This is the fire department in a nutshell. It may be run by good people, but its costs just keep growing, because council and staff have not aligned its budget to the city's needs. The fire chief's in-house review will do nothing to change the situation, unless councillors challenge its underlying assumptions.

Fire fighting is a matter of logistics, and council must take a logistical approach. Start by comparing the costs in Saint John to those in other jurisdictions.

The fire department's 2009 budget was $20.3 million; about 90 per cent covers wages and benefits for 191 firefighters. This is the highest municipal fire budget in the province, and it ranks high even in the Atlantic region. In 2008, Saint Johners paid the equivalent of $286 per person for fire service. The average per capita expense in New Brunswick's eight cities was $145. In Charlottetown, P.E.I. that year, the average cost was $90.

The department tries to justify this expense by pointing to Saint John's broad geography, heavy industrial base and the density of old wooden buildings. Budget debate tends to devolve into an either/or proposition: either councillors leave the department alone, or citizens will be deprived of effective fire fighting and affordable insurance.

Councillors must challenge these assumptions. If geography is an issue, perhaps outlying neighbourhoods could be served better by volunteer fire crews. If the density of wooden tenements poses too high a risk, perhaps it's time to tighten the building regulations. And rather than capitulating before the idea of insurance rate increases, how about asking who would see their rates go up if the fire department was changed - businesses, homeowners or slum landlords?

These questions haven't been thoroughly investigated, but they should be. Other cities have found ways to keep the cost of fire fighting down while maintaining quality service. Saint John can, too, but councillors must drive the search for effective, low-cost alternatives.

Set a target level for the degree of service the city wants. Find out which communities are meeting that target at lower cost, and find out how they are doing it.

Above all, make clear to staff that the status quo is unacceptable and expansion is out of the question.