Finance committee  That would be fantastic. If we could get an interoperable system in place in Canada, that would be tremendous, and we'd applaud you if you were to take that initiative and ensure we got it.

Finance committee  Yes, it is, but if everybody works together, I believe it can be achieved. It's now being achieved in some other countries in North America; they are starting to work towards it. It's time we also took up the challenge and make it happen.

Finance committee  It's actually a radio that we could use to communicate directly with each firefighter in an emergency. If something goes wrong at a scene, when you holler, “Mayday!”, everybody would get the message. In today's fire service a lot of people don't hear the communications. They may be carrying a pager that doesn't work.

Finance committee  Thank you.

Finance committee  Yes, I certainly support that initiative. It has been proven that the emergency responders in today's world are not equipped or trained properly to ascertain and do the job they have to do when it comes to USAR or CBRN. That money would be well spent by the government to ensure that all first responders in Canada are trained and equipped to a certain level, so that they can in fact protect the people and the structures as necessary.

Finance committee  I don't have the exact number at each level. All we know is that across Canada there are different levels of ongoing training within the local fire departments. Some of the smaller fire departments do not train very often, because they cannot often get the people out to do the training.

Finance committee  Thank you very much for your comment. I appreciate it.

Finance committee  Thank you very much.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am Fire Chief Don Warden. In addition to chairing the government relations committee of the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs, I'm also the fire chief of Wasaga Beach, Ontario. Our submission reflects the views of fire chiefs who participated in our pre-budget survey.