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How Fire Chiefs Can Communicate Effectively with Elected Officials and Senior Leadership

Available On-Demand

Hosted By

Darrell Reid

In a fire department, communicating effectively to your stakeholders is a foundational skill that is required to ensure departments can successfully make the case for needed resources and funding.

In this free, one-hour webinar, Darrell Reid shares what he’s learned from his work on both sides of the table: as a fire chief making the case, and as a Chief Administrative Officer strategically bringing forward initiatives for the consideration of elected officials.
In this free, one-hour webinar, Darrell Reid shares what he’s learned from his work on both sides of the table: as a fire chief making the case, and as a Chief Administrative Officer strategically bringing forward initiatives for the consideration of elected officials.
In this free, one-hour webinar, Darrell Reid shares what he’s learned from his work on both sides of the table: as a fire chief making the case, and as a Chief Administrative Officer strategically bringing forward initiatives for the consideration of elected officials.
You’ll walk away with practical strategies to make your message land with elected officials and senior administration.
What You’ll Learn:

  • How to present data in a way that resonates for elected officials and senior administration
  • What elected officials look for—and what turns them off
  • Simple ways to structure your message for clarity and impact
  • How to build trust and credibility through your presentations
  • Real-world examples from both the firehall and city hall

• Darkhorse Response turns raw incident data into decisions you can act on. Fast. No more spreadsheet scrambles—just sharp, visual insights that help you save time, money, and lives.

• Darkhorse Risk lets fire and emergency services map community risk in days, not months. It blends national and local data to reveal risk hotspots, back evidence-based action, and defend your decisions.

These tools reflect what we stand for: smarter resource use, stronger public safety, and real progress in risk reduction.

Register for Free Now

Featured Speakers

Darrell Reid

VP Strategy / Former Fire Chief and CAO

As a retired Fire Chief and City Admistrative Officer, Darrell understands both the operational and financial realities of running a fire department.

Darrell’s leadership experience includes CAO for Strathcona County, Fire and Emergency Management Chief and COVID-19 Task Force Chief for the City of Vancouver, CEO for Heart and Stroke Ontario, Deputy Fire Chief for Toronto Fire Services, and Union President for IAFF Local 2461.

Career highlights include being Incident Commander for the 2011 Slave Lake, Alberta fires and the 2013 High River, Alberta floods, two of the largest disasters in Canadian history. Darrell served as the CEO for the Heart and Stroke Foundation (HSF) of Ontario and as Chairman of the Provincial Advisory Board for Heart and Stroke British Columbia and Yukon, and founded the Society for Assistance to International Firefighters (SAIF) supporting first responders in Nicaragua and Guatemala.

Since 2019 he has participated as a co-lead in a World Health Organization project in Mongolia, helping build sustainable models for emergency medical, rescue and emergency management capacity in that country.

He is a noted advocate and internationally recognized speaker on topics including mental health resilience, evidence-based decision making, strategy, labour relations, staff engagement, and the opioid crisis.

Darrell has an MBA from the University of Alberta, an Executive Fire Officer Designation from the US National Fire Academy, a Community Preparedness & Disaster Management Graduate Certificate from UNC-Chapel Hill, and a Canadian Safety and Security Certificate from Canadian Forces College.

Darrell is also a successful entrepreneur, founding Emergency Services Academy, an accredited and licensed Alberta private college for firefighters and paramedics.