Commissioner Dominic Lane has also said he has no intention of following confidential proposals to move the territory's ambulance service to ACT Health, increase the reliance on ambulance units crewed by lone paramedics, or bring in "light response vehicles" for firefighting activities.

He said response times to building fires, which a secret review found to be significantly short of targets, would improve with planned reforms to the triple zero centre, ongoing upgrades and relocations of fire and ambulance stations, and improvements to radio and dispatch technology.

Mr Lane spoke to Fairfax Media on Tuesday about his plans for a significant restructuring of the ESA, known as the "strategic reform agenda".

That overhaul is being informed by a series of consultant reviews commissioned by the government, and by recent disaster resilience strategies that favour more investment in preparedness.

Mr Lane said he is confident no jobs will be lost, despite plans to eradicate duplication across the four separate services; the Ambulance Service, Fire and Rescue, Rural Fire Service, and State Emergency Service.

"We can be very clear to ESA members, this is not about job cutting," Mr Lane said.

"That's not what's on the strategic reform agenda. We intend to keep the same level of workforce.

"This is not about cuts, this is actually about positioning ourselves to 2020."

The restructure will keep the services entirely separate, but will introduce shared support and business areas.

It will see the creation of new executive functions managing the areas of "people and culture", "risk and planning", and "logistics and governance" for all four services.

The areas will be headed up by those in fire or ambulance deputy chief officer positions, who will report directly to the commissioner, but keep their current roles and return to operational response during significant emergencies.

That has come after one of the confidential reviews found the ESA was top-heavy, and that management costs could be reduced.

Shadow emergency services minister Brendan Smyth has expressed scepticism about the plans, and said it appeared "expensive" reviews had been commissioned, only for their recommendations to be rejected.

He questioned how duplication would be removed without job losses, and said it appeared as though more bureaucracy was being installed to surround the commissioner.

"It would seem that we're not having any reform here at all that would provide greater safety, better response times, and a new culture in our Emergency Services Agency under the leadership of this minister [Joy Burch]," he said.

Mr Lane spoke out against the constant attacks on the ESA's culture on Tuesday.

He said the work firefighters, paramedics, and volunteers performed was second to none.

"The issues that have been raised in relation to culture are really, across an organisation of more than 2500 people, very minuscule, very small," he said.

It was revealed on Tuesday that the ACT government is being significantly short-changed by the federal government for the provision of fire services.

The federal government is providing $4.6 million to pay for the protection of Commonwealth assets, which is estimated to be costing the ACT between $9.1 million and $11.9 million.

Mr Lane described the federal funding shortfall as "very challenging", but said the ACT government had recognised the problem, and had increased the emergency services levy in response.

"That has meant the gap is being met by the ACT taxpayer, and I think that's unfair," he said.

Mr Lane said a major development in the next 12 months will be the review of the triple zero call centre.

"We will obviously be looking at the recommendations in relation to increasing the professional civilian call takers in the room, and we will be looking at returning those firefighting positions to stations," he said.

"It's not saying they don't do a great job because they do, they do a fantastic job down there, but there are efficiencies to be gained and better ways to utilise it."

Mr Lane said he would continue to conduct forums and staff visits to talk about the changes. There have been almost 300 such meetings so far, including 90 specifically on the strategic reform agenda.

The five priority areas for the next five years are to realign the ESA structure, develop a new strategic and corporate plan, set high performance standards, invest in leadership and people management, and ensure rigorous decision making.