Looking back now, even as fog and darkness enveloped him while he clung soaking wet to a tree trunk on the icy bank of Lake Scugog, Neil Robbescheuten would think twice before calling 911 if it all happened again.

That's because, after firefighters rescued him from an ice fishing excursion gone wrong on Jan. 13, Robbescheuten got a bill in the mail for $5,392.78.

Robbescheuten, 62, is the first person billed by the Township of Scugog after the regional council recommended last March that the local fire department attempt to "recover costs" from people saved in ice and water rescues on Lake Scugog.

The invoice is labeled 001. At the bottom it reads: "Thank you for your business."

"I was almost ready for a heart attack," said the retired school principal. "I think it's horribly wrong."

Robbescheuten was given 30 days to pay up, but plans to contest the bill at Scugog council on March 4.

"If I pay this bill, it's telling them that I condone the process, and I don't. I absolutely abhor it," he said. "If they're looking for money, there are lots of other ways."

Scugog Mayor Chuck Mercier denied the recommendation was made primarily for budget concerns. He said the aim is to discourage people from taking unnecessary risks on the lake, decisions that could put rescue workers in danger.

"If I lost six firefighters on that foggy day, going out on Lake Scugog when the ice conditions were so treacherous, who would have cried then?

"That day, no one should have been out on the ice."

Two days before Robbenscheuten's mishap on the ice, Kawartha Conservation warned residents to stay off frozen waterways, stating that "all local rivers, streams and lakes should be considered extremely dangerous."

But Robbescheuten, who has fished on Lake Scugog for 30 years, maintains he was safe until fog rolled in as darkness fell. He grew disoriented on his way back to shore, then fell through the ice and got stuck in mud and water up to his waist.

He said he tore a ligament in his right knee as he scrambled out towards the shoreline, where he called 911 on his cellphone.

Scugog fire chief Richard Miller, who wrote a report that led to the call for rescue bills, said the weather was warm and rainy in the days before Robbescheuten's excursion.

"No ice is safe ice," he said. "The minute you step on the lake, that's your choice . If people want to go out there, they're on their own."

Robbescheuten believes that mentality will send the wrong message to people who find themselves in danger, regardless of whether they've been responsible on the lake.

"When I taught kids at school, we always told them, 'If you think you're in danger, in life-threatening danger, you're going to call 911,'" he said.

"If we have 911 billing, it will discourage some people from calling, it will delay response times if they don't call immediately, and we could get into all kinds of issues."

Richard Boyes, executive director of the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs, brushed off that concern.

"I wouldn't think that's a deterrent at all," he said of rescue billing. "Anyone that's in an emergency situation, I highly doubt would be considering that."

He added that last March, the Township of Oro-Medonte billed 26 anglers roughly $200 each after they were rescued from an ice floe on Lake Simcoe.

"A lot of these rescues, first of all they endanger the rescuers, and they incur a lot of costs," said Boyes. "It's becoming more of a trend."

THE BILL � . �Three fire trucks for two hours: $3,000.00

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� . �One standby fire truck for 1.5 hours: $750.00

� . �Fifteen firefighters for two hours: $966.30