Team
Suzanne Charbonneau-Dent, B.A.Sc., M.P.A., P. Eng.
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Suzanne is the owner and Principal of Tayport Limited. Prior to starting Tayport she was the Technical Service Lead / Technical Group Strategist for Fire and Emergency Services at Dillon Consulting. She is a civil (transportation) engineer with 17 years of experience, including 16 years of fire service planning experience and 14 years of project management experience. She has been involved with over 100 fire and emergency services projects including community risk assessments, fire service reviews, strategic fire master planning studies, fire station location studies, and operational and organizational reviews for volunteer, composite and full-time fire departments. She has experience with all elements of these projects including data collection, emergency response/station location modelling, environmental scans, divisional reviews, strategic implementation plans, reporting and presenting study results. Suzanne has also demonstrated strong leadership in the area of fire suppression and station location reviews including assessing emergency response deployment capabilities as it pertains to fire risk.
Suzanne’s notable and relevant experience includes leading the City of Mississauga Comprehensive Risk Assessment (2017), the Community Risk Reduction Strategy (2018), the Infrastructure Renewal Strategy (2019) and currently the 2024 Future Directions Plan for Fire and Emergency Services. She has also led the preparation of community risk assessments and fire master plans for the Town of LaSalle (2019), Township of South Stormont (2023), City of Oshawa (2020), and City of Cambridge (2023).
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Steve Thurlow, CMM III
Prior to joining Tayport, Steve was a Fire Services Consultant and Project Manager with Dillon for 14 years. Before that Steve was the Fire Chief for the City of Burlington (appointed in 1999). He retired from the City of Burlington following 35 years of service. He was responsible for overseeing a department comprising 245 staff, including career and volunteer firefighters, and an annual budget of over $20 million. Steve served as the Regional Fire Coordinator for the Region of Halton and as a highly respected member of the senior management team of the City of Burlington.
The roles and responsibilities of a municipal Fire Chief include representing his/her city and the community on all matters related to the delivery of fire protection services. This role includes the regulatory responsibility to advise Council as it pertains to the delivery of fire protection services, and represent Council. Throughout his career Steve has been called upon on several different occasions to provide research, develop reports and present expert evidence.
As a consultant, Steve utilizes his skills and experience in supporting the evidenced based analyses of community needs and circumstances and current fire protection services provided to a range of clients, including smaller communities utilizing solely volunteer firefighters, to larger urban centers relying upon career staff resources. This role has included the development of internal analyses tools to identify and objectively assess community risk, and identify options for the delivery of fire protection services.
Through his project experience, Steve regularly consults with municipal staff and elected officials in the context of the fire service. Likewise, Steve consults with fire services staff in the context of local municipal needs and circumstances.
Steve was recently the project manager for the City of Oshawa (2020), Township of Centre Wellington, Township of South Stormont (2016), City of Brantford (2019), and Town of Caledon (2020) fire and emergency services planning studies.