Thank you so much, Adam.
One thing you mentioned.... I want to be clear. Chris, also—sorry, I'm going to use your first names because we're all colleagues here—I want to be really clear. Whether a career firefighter, a volunteer firefighter or an on-call firefighter, a firefighter is a firefighter. They are exposed to the same chemicals. I want to be clear that this bill covers all firefighters—indigenous firefighters, firefighters in the Canadian Armed Forces, firefighters across Canada—because cancer doesn't discriminate, and neither does fire.
The important thing is talking about this. If we know that there are 19 cancers recognized as linked to service in Manitoba, Manitoba has information that, perhaps if we get everyone around the table to share what information they have, what research, which data.... This is where we're going to start talking about prevention, understanding that in terms of decontamination, big city fire departments in Toronto have the resources for decontamination at the site of a fire. However, when you are a volunteer firefighter and you keep your bunker gear in your car and you haven't decontaminated it, that is the same trunk that you put your family groceries in. This is what I'm talking about.
The pride we had when we were kids growing up.... I remember putting my dad's boots on. The boots were covered in soot. I would put on his bunker gear, his jacket, and it would drag on the floor because I was so little. Firefighters took pride in how dirty their uniforms were, right? You worked harder.
Today, that would be unheard of because it is contaminated with toxic chemicals. We know now that you need to wipe down. Don't get into the vehicle with your contaminated gear. Exposure through the skin is actually probably more dangerous. Because you wear your SCBA, self-contained breathing apparatus, you're not breathing it in as much, but you're exposed to it. That's what this is about. It's about bringing awareness through the designation of January as firefighter cancer awareness month but also through best practices, through knowing to please not carry your bunker gear in your car, to change the hood after every fire, to not wash your equipment in your family washing machine or in a public laundromat. That's what this is about.
I learned so much in the course of researching this bill of which I myself had no idea. I remember that, at the second hour of debate at second reading, I said that one thing I'm really proud of is that “[t]here are now 338 members of Parliament”—representing every Canadian—“who [now] know that firefighting” is a carcinogenic profession.
When we talk to firefighters in our respective ridings, we can make sure and ask, “Are you aware? Do you know? Are you taking the proper precautions?”
That's what this bill is about.