Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Sherry. Thank you for being here. Thank you for all of your work on this and for being a champion for people like your father and your husband and for over 100,000 firefighters across the country, people who have served, people who are serving, and people who will serve. Firefighting is—to rank them—one of the most important roles in our communities. Firefighters don't just put out fires. They're always there for us, whether it's a car accident or a cat in a tree as Mr. Lewis said. Whatever it is, firefighters are heros. I'm very proud of all of my friends. A lot of paddlers, a lot of people who used to do sport, chatted about this the other night at the reception, about how many people who used to do sport gravitate towards a team environment and want to keep supporting their community members.
I didn't know that firefighting was linked to so many chronic illnesses until I was 17 years old. When I was 17, I was here in Ottawa. The national championships were here, and there was an award for a new trophy. It was called the Jean Fournel trophy. Jean Fournel was an amazing Olympian in my sport. His two kids, who I got to go to the Olympics with a couple of times, Hugues and Émilie.... However, Jean died from leukemia way too young. He was a firefighter. He was also a Montreal Olympian. He got to go to the Olympics at home. He was an amazing guy. My coach.... I went to the Olympics with him, and he said his arms were the size of his legs. He was an incredible guy.
I remember, back in 1999 here in Ottawa, sitting on that podium and listening to the announcer talk about Jean in a long story. We got the long version of it when the trophy was awarded the first time, and we just sat there and we cried. We cried with these two little kids—I think they were 10 and 12 at the time—Émilie and Hugues. We didn't know that nine years later we were going to be at the Olympics together. Émilie and Hugues are two of my closest friends. I never got to know their dad, Jean, but there are a lot of stories, and he was an amazing guy.
This past weekend in Milton, I attended the celebration of life for James Finn. Jim Finn was born and raised in Milton, and he spent his entire life giving back to the committee. He worked for the Town of Milton in the operations department for over 44 years. For a lot of that time, we only had volunteer firefighters, and he served alongside the brave men and women in the Milton fire department for 47 years. We didn't really get into the specifics of James' illness, but he died from cancer at the age of 76, and he leaves behind his wonderful kids. This is a big family. His nephew taught me in high school. It's a big family with a lot of teachers and a lot of firefighters.
We know that firefighters quite literally take their work home with them. When I visited the new fire station with Chief Gatto in Milton a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to talk to some firefighters about this bill. They told me more than I ever knew was possible about how many dangerous chemicals are involved in the field of firefighting, about how much contamination is on their uniforms when they get off the job and are coming back from a work site from putting out a fire and being around noxious chemicals, and about how much is probably on their clothes when they go home, too. I know that you have a lot to say about this bill. We've talked about it a lot. I'm just going to open the floor to you. I know you have more to say than you had the time to say. I just want to say thank you to you, your staff, and everybody who helped and to the firefighters who provided such great advice and recommendations to this bill. This bill is going to change and save lives.
Thank you, Sherry.