Thank you for your question.
As I mentioned in my presentation, 85% of the country is covered by volunteer or part-time firefighters. Not only do these firefighters cover a massive amount of territory, but the service they provide is also essential. Just imagine if all of them were paid full-time workers. That would require an enormous investment; it would cost a fortune.
You hit the nail on the head. One of our biggest challenges right now is retaining part-time and volunteer firefighters. Times have changed; the context is no longer the same. Nowadays, it’s hard to retain young firefighters, and that’s a problem facing not just municipalities in Quebec, but also those around the country.
Some municipalities have already set up initiatives to retain firefighters. Measures do exist, including the volunteer firefighter tax credit. However, it’s confusing because, as I just mentioned, there are two types of firefighters: part time and volunteer. Part-time firefighters receive some benefits for their service, but volunteer firefighters do it purely for the love of the job. True volunteers are harder and harder to come by. While they do have access to the volunteer firefighter tax credit, the applicable definition of a volunteer firefighter isn’t clear.
You asked me whether additional efforts could be made. More credits would certainly be welcome. Firefighters and people who live in the regions often have seasonal jobs, and that can be a headache for them. In Gaspé or on the west coast, for instance, people work as fishers, and when the season ends, they collect employment insurance, or EI, benefits. They are penalized, however, when they are called to respond to a fire: their EI benefits are cut depending on what they receive for their firefighting service.
This is something the federal government could work on to help us hold on to our part-time firefighters.