Public Safety committee  As we go forward and look at the different options that become available, what you're saying is absolutely true. It not only exists within mental health wellness, it similarly affects those same communities sometimes in public health initiatives. In Saskatchewan a program was ini

Public Safety committee  I think it's a great point. As we've been suggesting, I think the key to this is, number one, breaking down the stigma. The more we talk about it and the more information we get out there, the more likely we are to build and understand specific individuals. On the broader concep

Public Safety committee  Absolutely. There's a gap in all fire services data. I know the fire chiefs have worked very hard to build a dataset to start to incorporate not only fire statistics, but the health and wellness statistics for firefighters. We certainly have a gap compared with the U.S., in that

Public Safety committee  I don't know that they're captured, to be honest with you.

Public Safety committee  What the federal government is doing to date is beginning to reduce the stigma and foster that type of relationship. One of the keys to this moving forward, and certainly what we've asked for at the federal level, is to have that all-encompassing plan. We know that, as this moves

Public Safety committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am honoured to have the opportunity to share with the committee our views on this timely and important subject. By way of background, the International Association of Fire Fighters represents more than 23,000 full-time professional firefighters in Canada

Health committee  I'll start. I think there's a role for peer to peer support. I think that's what Vince said. I think is so important to be training first responders on crisis intervention and giving them that knowledge base, not only so they can apply it when they're out in public, but also so t

Health committee  Two or three years ago we were approached by the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs. A program had been set up for mental health first aid. It was a train the trainer program. We were able to put some people through it on a trial basis. They were hoping to raise funding to wheel

Health committee  I think that with post-traumatic stress disorder and the increased sense of awareness of it, we've overcome some of the basic hurdles in getting it recognized through workers' compensation. In that sense, the more knowledge there is and the more it's accepted as a workplace illne

Health committee  No, I think that's exactly it from our perspective at the International Association of Fire Fighters. There are federal firefighters as well, so certainly there's an impact from a federal basis, but I agree with you entirely. What we've got to do is to set up a structure here s

Health committee  On behalf of our 23,000 members across Canada, I'm honoured to share our views on this very important subject with the committee. Canada's professional firefighters are on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week in cities large and small across this great country. We're usually

Health committee  Yes, absolutely. I think we've made the point fairly clearly that what we are looking for is to be considered no different from any other emergency health provider. The reason we're here at the federal level as opposed to the provincial level is that if we go out tomorrow and con

Health committee  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 provid

Health committee  I'm not suggesting at this point in time that they look at more tiering. I really don't think I'm qualified to answer that. My point, very simply, is that firefighters are front-line emergency heath care workers and they should be recognized in that capacity. They shouldn't be pu

Health committee  If I heard the quote correctly, he related it to the age of firefighters. Did I hear that correctly?