If I may, I think what we're doing is striking at the source. The source of this confusion—and I'll be perfectly blunt: I think an error was made. I think whoever put firefighters in that second tier—this is only my opinion—didn't realize we are first-line emergency health providers.
What we are trying to get at is that the definition within the pandemic plan has to recognize and incorporate firefighters within that first tier. If there's a reason down the road to remove them, whether it be epidemiology or whether that determination be done in the rollout of the guideline at the federal level or in the rollout at the provincial and municipal levels, then let that happen. But we don't want a repetition of what occurred last time. In my view, with all due respect to the doctors involved, I don't believe firefighters were removed based on some of the reasons given here. I believe there was an oversight; I believe an error was made and they didn't recognize that firefighters perform a function no different from paramedics, and they didn't understand the nature of our job.
We're here because this is the source, and we want to make sure you understand what we do for a living, the risk we are at, and why we belong side by side with other emergency medical providers.