Local firefighters sounded the alarm this week about new legislation that has ignited controversy in fire halls throughout the province as implications of the changes spread like wildfire.
The biggest impact, locally, will be how the new rules impact volunteer firefighters, said Orillia’s assistant fire chief, Brent Thomas.
“The main challenge for the Orillia Fire Department with respect to the regulation is for volunteer firefighters and some officer certification,” Thomas says. “Volunteer firefighter turnover will be an ongoing challenge under this new regulation.”
Thomas and fire chief Ralph Dominelli explained the changes and their potential ramifications during a presentation to council committee Monday night.
“Recommendations from several coroner inquests have been identifying the need to ensure fire protection services meet the unique needs of individual communities while standardizing certification levels through the Fire Protection and Prevention Act (FPPA),” Thomas explained.
He said that in February of 2018, the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services released the “new draft safety regulations under the FPPA for public comment which sparked hundreds of responses from the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO), the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs along with many other stakeholders (who) were not happy with the regulations and the stringent timelines that were required in the draft.”
Thanks to pressure from AMO, the fire chiefs and others, the rollout of the changes was delayed by six months. However, that means the new legislation is just a year away and will be implemented next July.
“The new regulations come into effect in incremental stages requiring certification for all fire department staff starting in July 2019 through to January of 2021,” said Thomas.
And that’s part of the problem, he said. The availability of the necessary training coupled with the tight time constraints will make compliance difficult, said Thomas.
Officials were quick to point out local firefighters are well trained and qualified.
“Historically, the Orillia Fire Department has ensured staff training following the recognized training programs and standards recognized by the Office of the Fire Marshal,” said Thomas. “The department’s training has met and or has exceeded the recommended programs and, in most cases, we have already certified staff to the National Fire Protection Association standards.”
Officials took every advantage they could under the grandfathering provisions and “obtained all possible certifications for each member of the department that we could at that time.”
Coun. Tim Lauer, noting fire officials estimate it will cost about $30,000 to ensure staff meet the new legislation, commented the cost didn’t seem prohibitive.
But the issue is not necessarily financial, said Thomas.
“The cost primarily through the certification process is time,” said Thomas. He noted volunteer firefighters must complete 220 hours of job-specific training for Firefighter Level 1 and 90 hours for Level 2.
“In order for our vol firefighters to do that, that’s going to require them to have up to five weeks off from their fulltime employment and for us to compensate them for their time based on what we compensate volunteers to be certified,” said Thomas. “That will be a challenge to have people who are volunteer firefighters to be able to get five weeks off” within two years.
The $30,000 price tag covers the cost of certification for current volunteer firefighters. That does not take into consideration the cost of compensating the firefighters nor does it factor in the costs for staff looking to advance into supervisory roles, move to other divisions or supervise new interns.
In addition to the certification changes, the legislation also necessitates a community risk assessment and public reporting of response times.
“Staff will continue to monitor if there are any changes to the way we currently report in these two areas because we already do report in these two areas,” said Thomas.
