Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Through you, to the witnesses, thank you very much for being here today and illuminating this issue.
Scott, I don't know when you last served in Toronto, but you may be aware that in my riding of Beaches—East York we have this little ceremony every year, a remembrance of 9/11. It's an interesting and emotional reminder to everybody who attends that ceremony what the firefighters did on that day. It stands out and I think represents your profession well in the duty that you feel professionally, and for the volunteers as well—not to distinguish between the professional firefighters and volunteers—to public safety.
Last time you guys came to visit me in my office here on the Hill, Damien and gang left me with a remembrance memorial book of 9/11, which I've kept out. I raise all that because your testimony today has been a great reminder of the duty that your members feel for public safety, and all of us in the room, I'm sure, appreciate and thank you for that.
I want to get a little more precision on the issue with the guidelines. Maybe I'm a bit slow on this, but I thought I heard you say at the very beginning that the guidelines recognized firefighters as part of the first responder medical care, that you were in the guidelines as part of that group. Yet when it was prioritized and tiered, the occupation of firefighters was pulled out and put in the second tier. Am I understanding this correctly?