Thank you, and good afternoon.
My name is Ken Block, and it is indeed a privilege to speak to you today in my role as the president of the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs. I also serve as the fire chief in Edmonton, Alberta, an internationally accredited fire service. I am joined at the table, as you mentioned, by CAFC's executive director, Dr. Tina Saryeddine.
We recognize that you have many groups and priorities to consider, and we thank you and your staff for both the opportunity and the effort you are making to protect Canadians across the country and at home in your ridings and provinces.
The last five years have not been easy ones for the fire service. Each region of our country has been directly affected. In Quebec, we saw the deadliest train crash since Confederation. Our colleagues in British Columbia remain in a state of emergency. My own province of Alberta suffered the largest natural disaster in our country's history, with economic costs and consequences still being felt.
What we are seeing is less about the number of fires and disasters and more about their increasing severity, impact, and socio-economic consequences on businesses and on individual Canadians. These stories make headlines, but what doesn't make the headlines is what happens post-event to victims, families, and first responders. Every disaster is a traumatic event that will affect those who experience it to their deepest core. Few firefighters in Canada are trained to deal with the mental health issues that they will encounter.
The efforts of the federal government around a post-traumatic stress injury framework, while commendable, remain a work in progress. The question is, what do we do in the meantime? We need innovative ways to increase training, access, and coverage for mental health services. This is why we support the call for a mental health innovation fund that has been on the platforms and proposals of many groups.
This is also why we are asking the federal government for funding to make the Mental Health Commission of Canada's road to mental readiness program available to every firefighter in Canada. This program was rolled out in my own department and to great effect. It's an evidence-informed approach to increasing resilience so that the impacts of traumatic events and mental health issues can be managed.
These programs cost money, and please keep in mind that the majority of fire departments across this country are volunteer. They often fundraise for the most basic of equipment, and paying for such a program is clearly out of their reach. They need help.
You also likely recall seeing the travesty of the Grenfell high-rise fire in England earlier this summer. This is the story of a building. Buildings reflect the building codes of countries, provinces, and regions. Could this happen here? Could it happen in your riding? Fires can happen anywhere.
Canada's building code system is an extraordinary, evidence-informed process. It involves stating the issue and showing the evidence for the issue and solution. Firefighters know what the issues are. They see them first-hand every day; however, experience, as real and as valuable as it is, is not the research evidence that is preferred to inform building code change. Industry and academia have a decided advantage over the fire service in advocating building code revision.
Research, while extremely valued, is not the primary purpose of a fire department. As a consequence, what we know from experience currently is not being effectively synthesized and submitted to building code amendments as research-grade evidence.
We are thus asking you to create a fire service research fund that would be directed so that what we know from experience can be explored and expressed to Canadians and policy-makers in an evidence-informed manner.
As well, unlike any other first responders, fire services in Canada rely on part-time firefighters in volunteer departments. We commend the volunteer firefighters' tax credit and cannot underscore enough the importance of maintaining such a gesture. This is the type of tax credit that recognizes people who put their own lives at risk for their communities. We ask you to protect this as you undertake any further review of tax credits.
I'd like to leave you with the following notion. Fire departments are often considered an issue of municipal jurisdiction. We in the CAFC consider the federal government as a key player in the fire services in Canada. While we have spoken today of three budget measures, there are actually over 16 national and federal policy issues spanning multiple federal departments, from transport to public safety, science to health, innovation to national defence, and foreign affairs, as well as others.
As an association, we recommend to you that it is time for the creation of a national fire adviser secretariat in Canada, one that can provide a data-informed, evidence-based, holistic, and integrated perspective. Other G7 countries have invested in this to great effect.
In November, my colleagues and I will be back in Ottawa to continue this conversation with all MPs about the future of the fire service in Canada.
We thank you for your time and commend you for your ongoing work.