Finance Committee on Sept. 25th, 2006

[Jim Lee]

That's correct.

[The Chair, Conservative, Brian Pallister]

And $6 million all in is what you're....

[Jim Lee]

What we're saying is for every line-of-duty death, there would be a cash payment of--

[The Chair, Conservative, Brian Pallister]

$300,000?

[Jim Lee]

Yes, $300,000.

[The Chair, Conservative, Brian Pallister]

And your estimated cost is $6 million?

[Jim Lee]

We lose about ten firefighters a year in the line of duty and the police lose about seven, so that's in around just over $5 million.

[The Chair, Conservative, Brian Pallister]

Just for my personal interest, although it may interest the committee, I'm always concerned with benefits, as a former chartered financial consultant who's now actively involved in another world. I still carry some residual interest in this. I'm always concerned when there are sometimes benefits brought into play. In other words, whether a firefighter dies at work or not makes no difference to the hardship on a family. The hardship is the same financially, and this is why I ask this question.

Firefighters can get their own personal life insurance. They negotiate life insurance benefits through their collective bargaining process, and so on. That's a fact.

[Jim Lee]

If they're able to, yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Brian Pallister]

Yes, and it varies. You're saying there's a hodgepodge. I believe that was the word you used. The benefits vary, depending on the bargaining unit and what have you.

[Jim Lee]

That's correct.

[The Chair, Conservative, Brian Pallister]

I'm soliciting your organization's assistance here. I know that a number of associations across the country make association life insurance available to their members and encourage that. Has your organization done something like that? Do you do that?

[Jim Lee]

Yes, we do. The International Association of Fire Fighters has a financial corporation.

[The Chair, Conservative, Brian Pallister]

I really commend you on that. Because you yourself say in the brief that even with this benefit in place, it may still be inadequate for the families of younger firefighters in the event of their death or disability, I offer this entreaty: it's critical that we understand the need for planning and personal preparedness. Of all the people in this country, you should understand that. Your members, I'm sure, understand that, so--

[Jim Lee]

I couldn't agree with you more. What we've looked at is the average age of a firefighter who dies in the line of duty, which is 43. If he had been able to work until age 60, 17 years of lost income works out to about $1.1 million. We think that if the federal government stepped into the breach and offered $300,000, actually, that it and life insurance and what they may be able to negotiate at the bargaining table would allow the family to stay in the family home that much longer.

What I find interesting is that the entire Conservative caucus endorsed motion 153, so I feel the Conservatives have got it. They know what needs to be there.

[The Chair, Conservative, Brian Pallister]

Well, of course, as a non-partisan chair I couldn't respond to that, but I appreciate your response and all your responses.

We'll continue now with Mr. Pacetti. You have five minutes, sir.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Lee, I had this same question for the person prior. Even if we recommend the $500,000--because we're not the ones giving it--on your second recommendation regarding the retraining for Canada's first responders, how do we do it? How do we recommend, and through what organization? How would it be done on a national level? Do we have that kind of organization in place?

[Jim Lee]

I think that through the public safety ministry, we have the Canadian Emergency Preparedness College and we could work in conjunction with the Emergency Preparedness College here in Canada to enhance what they currently have in place.

We get this all the time. Everybody's saying that the clock is ticking here. It's not whether something is going to happen, it's when. Five years after the fact, we're still no further ahead, or we're very little ahead of the curve on training. It's going to be a huge problem with the next event.

We know the military has been in training, but it won't be the military that will be there. They are days and days away from deployment. We're there in four minutes.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

The question was basically to see if additional costs would have to be incurred to implement this type of national program.

[Jim Lee]

No.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Okay, thank you, Mr. Lee.

Mr. Atkinson, in relation to your yearly basic exemption for unemployment, do you have any costs related to that?

[Michael Atkinson]

No, we have not done any cost computations on that. However, I think the research people both for this committee and for the standing committee on human resources have done something, because both committees have recommended.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

The group that had recommended it to us was the restaurant group. They had come up with the costs, but in your industry are there really a lot of part-time workers who would be affected?

[Michael Atkinson]

There would be an effect when employees were working for multiple employers during the same period. That often happens in our industry, particularly in the unionized sector.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Thank you.

Ms. Brown, is the Heart and Stroke Foundation a funding organization, a research organization?