Honourable senators, I rise today to speak to Bill C-224, the national framework on cancers linked to firefighting act. It is my honour to be the sponsor in the Senate, and I thank you for giving me the time and the opportunity to explain the importance of this bill, as well as why we need to refer it to committee for further study without delay.

Senators, workers don’t go to work expecting to die, but that’s exactly what is happening to our firefighters — at an alarming rate — in every community across this country because of the consistent exposure to high levels of carcinogens that may lead to cancers. Bill C-224 is a positive step to help address this issue, and it includes two key measures to support our firefighters in their fight against cancer.

First, it promotes education and awareness about cancers linked to firefighting by designating January as a national firefighter cancer awareness month.

The second and most crucial measure in the legislation is the establishment of a national framework to study these cancers. Without research, current data and information sharing between jurisdictions, firefighters will keep going in blind when it comes to protecting themselves on the job. Senators, I want to talk to you today about what this bill concerns, and how it can help the men and women of the fire service who risk their lives to save ours.

I would say that many of us in this chamber would not sign up for a job that requires running headfirst into danger. Our odds of signing up for that job would be even less upon learning that it would leave us with a four-times-higher risk of developing cancer. This is why we are senators and not firefighters.

What I just described is a job for the estimated 126,000 firefighters working in some 3,200 fire departments across this country. These brave men and women show up to work knowing that 85% of fatal workplace claims in their profession are attributed to occupational cancers.

For decades, we have used a patchwork approach to address the issue of cancers linked to firefighting. While some provinces and territories have recognized as many as 20 different types of cancers linked to firefighting, others have recognized only 9. This is unacceptable for firefighters and their families. The ability of workers to receive workers’ compensation because their job made them sick should not be dependent on the province or the territory they happen to live in — period.

Bill C-224 addresses this problem by providing for the development of a national framework that examines the link between firefighting and cancer, and by identifying gaps in training and education for firefighters and health care professionals around cancer prevention and treatment.

The framework will also provide for recommendations respecting regular screenings for cancers linked to firefighting. It will encourage knowledge sharing in relation to the prevention and treatment of cancers linked to firefighting. This bill goes a long way toward helping Canadian firefighters focus on one thing: doing their job.

Senators, it is true that firefighters, like all first responders, sign up for a certain degree of risk. They sign up to show up for their neighbours on the worst days of their lives, to run into buildings when everyone is running out and, increasingly, to respond to medical calls. But they do not sign up to die — no worker in this country does.

Today, we are asking our firefighters to assume a level of risk above and beyond the call of duty, and a level of risk above what any reasonable person should expect of them. Families should not be forced to bear the burden of watching their loved ones get sick, and face losing them to occupational cancers.

I recently had the honour to speak with Craig and Alisen Bowman of Welland, Ontario. Craig is 47 years old, a proud husband to Alisen and a proud father to Lexi and Colin. He was a professional firefighter for over 20 years with the City of Welland. He was diagnosed with stage 4 esophageal cancer in May of last year.

Craig, as you can imagine, was fit and healthy prior to his diagnosis. He had no family history of cancer, and his doctors attribute his diagnosis to his work as a firefighter. To compound the stress that his family is going through, Craig is not eligible for workers’ compensation. He is two years short of the 25-year service requirement for esophageal cancer.

Colleagues, Craig’s fight was preventable; we know this now. We are now learning that in addition to the damage inflicted by the actual fires, the gear that they wear to protect themselves from those fires could be making them sick, too.

This is compounded by the fact that they often don’t have the proper decontamination facilities or protocols to mitigate the impact of carcinogens lingering on their gear. We need this national framework to better understand the short-term and long-term health impacts of these realities.

None of this is news to firefighters. For years, they have been sounding the alarm about high rates of cancer among their colleagues, and they were right. According to the International Association of Fire Fighters, 95% of firefighters’ line-of-duty deaths are linked to occupational cancer.

The World Health Organization recently designated firefighting as a Group 1 carcinogenic profession — reinforcing its status among the most dangerous jobs in the world.

Senators, Bill C-224 is designed to provide real information, solutions and accountability to firefighters facing the ongoing threat of occupational cancer. The accountability piece of this bill is crucial.

Within a year of the bill becoming law, the minister responsible must table a report setting out the national framework for the prevention and treatment of cancers linked to firefighting.

Within five years of this report being tabled, the minister must report back to Parliament on the effectiveness of the national framework, as well as report back on the state of the prevention and treatment of cancers linked to firefighting.

Various provinces and territories have been involved with this issue for years. Bill C-224 will hopefully encourage their continued collaboration, and help municipal, provincial and federal governments make better decisions for our firefighters.

Before I conclude, I want to thank, of course, my colleague in the other place MP Sherry Romanado for her advocacy on behalf of firefighters. As you know, it takes skill to manœuvre a private member’s bill through the process in the other place, let alone to get it passed with unanimous support from all parties. Members of that chamber recognize that these are the people who protect our families and ensure the safety of our communities.

I also want to thank the International Association of Fire Fighters and the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs for their efforts to fight for their members and workers. Many of the firefighters fighting for the changes inspired by Bill C-224 will not live to see the benefits, and yet they are relentless in their pursuit of a safer workplace for the next generation.

Colleagues, there is no downside to passing this bill. It passed unanimously in the other place because members recognized that time is of the essence, and firefighters need our protection and support. We need research and data to help protect our firefighters so they can better protect us.

Bill C-224 offers us a tremendous opportunity to do right by them. So let’s pass this bill now and refer it to committee for further study. Firefighters and their families can’t wait. I believe this bill will be a tremendous good for our country and for the men and women who do so much good on behalf of all of us. Thank you so much.

Thank you very kindly for the question. I believe, of course, as you know, the majority of the regulations in regard to occupational health and safety reside in the provincial and territorial governments. It’s there where we need the greatest action in the context of what some provinces and territories are already doing. Of course, the challenge is we don’t have uniformity of application across the country of how we treat cancer, much less how we can prevent firefighters from being exposed to the carcinogens they are dealing with when they go in to fight a fire.

I am hopeful that with the federal government taking the lead, should this bill pass, it will help coordinate that effort and bring into context a national approach of how we can better protect firefighters doing their job and, more importantly, ensuring that they have the right application. In addition to that, of course, there can be a national coordinated effort of how we can study the impact of these carcinogens and the impact on firefighters and, of course, their illnesses on a day-to-day basis.

More importantly, the gear that firefighters use to help protect them when they go in to fight a fire should not make them sick, so we need to do a better job of determining how to decontaminate the protective equipment that they use on a day‑to-day basis. Right now, there is no uniformity as to how we approach that issue across the country.

In addition to that, research can bring about a better way to help these firefighters protect themselves after they fight a fire in our communities and across this country.

I would also like to thank the senator for the sponsorship of this bill and to indicate that I am also prepared to support it. I apologize for not giving you advance notice of this question. I would like to build upon Senator Cardozo’s question.

As you’re aware, I have been involved in adjudicating workers’ compensation as well as having served as a workers’ advocate. This is, as you noted, an issue that is a complete patchwork across the country, and it is in much need of reform.

I am wondering if, in addressing this bill in the House of Commons, you and others involved in this bill have contemplated any sort of an amendment or methodology by which we might persuade, amicably, the workers’ compensation boards across the country to adopt a standard or a regulation such as you’ve proposed.

Thank you very kindly for your question. I think you address one of the most fundamental challenges that firefighters, and their families, face when they get ill as a result of their work. Because, of course, the provinces, to a large extent, establish workers’ compensation systems, it is for them to adapt their system to recognize these carcinogens have a critical impact on the lives of these workers when they go to work. Of course, we don’t have consistency across the country.

It is mind-boggling today that in some jurisdictions, 29 of the carcinogens are recognized for what they are. In other places, it’s 9 or 16 or fewer than that.

So the reality is, of course, that the firefighters who are lucky enough to live where an enlightened province or territory has taken the decision to add more carcinogens to the list of carcinogens that workers can be impacted by in terms of their work will get workers’ compensation benefits should they get sick, but in many places, they fall between the cracks.

Within the federal jurisdiction, as you know, there is no workers’ compensation system. I would say it would be unwise to put an amendment in the bill and somehow think that will motivate the provinces. It would be critical for the federal government to try to bring the provinces and the territories together, for one, to show what some of the provinces and territories are doing, which is very positive and enlightening, but also to recognize that other provinces should acknowledge that this is the direction they need to go in.

I know in your own territory, you have done the most in regard to recognizing carcinogens, and that is a result of enlightened political leadership. In some provinces, we have a distance to go.

Many firefighters who are dying as a result of these carcinogen-related cancers are hopeful that in the near future all provinces and territories will adopt a common standard of how they treat workers when they get ill and, more importantly, of course, provide them the compensation they need, recognizing that giving compensation does not resolve the issue of dying from a carcinogen, which is a bigger challenge we have to face. How do we prevent those carcinogens from getting into our society? More importantly, how do we ensure the equipment these workers are using when they go into buildings and homes to fight fires is not making them sick when they come home to their families?

Thank you very much for that response. Is there perhaps a greater window, then, if we were to focus the energies of the bill and the regulation on the equipment? As I understand it, that is a key presentation that has been made.

Also, the workers’ compensation boards meet at least every year. There is a meeting of all of the boards across the country. Perhaps there could be a recommendation to the minister responsible in the bill that he or she be in attendance and attempt to work with the provinces and territories on this very important issue.

Again, thank you for the supplementary question. I think the suit that firefighters use when fighting fires certainly is problematic in the context of how it protects them from fire, but it doesn’t protect them from carcinogens.

Of course, I’m sure we will develop better suits as time goes on, but in the meantime, we need to figure out how those suits can be decontaminated after a firefighter comes back from fighting a fire.

Again, while the bill does not spell out which minister will be responsible for taking this bill up should it become law, in my humble opinion, it will be both the Minister of Labour and the Minister of Health because there are two aspects to the bill. Both ministers will have to collaborate on how they will engage their colleagues at the provincial and territorial level to ensure some of the requirements of the bill are met, but equally to address some of the issues that you have raised. For instance, the Minister of Labour can certainly speak to his counterparts about the need to have uniformity across the country as to how firefighter cancers are treated in regard to the workers’ compensation systems.

At the same time, given the provincial health and safety laws address the safety of equipment that you use — and that is in the context of the suit that they use — there could be a uniformed approach as to how those suits could be decontaminated if equipment should exist that can do so in other jurisdictions.

It would be equally important for these two ministers to collaborate but, equally, to ensure every aspect that the bill attempts to address will be accomplished in the context of that collaboration, recognizing that the system across the country — which is a patchwork — will require provinces and territories wanting to change that. Hopefully, moral persuasion and political efforts can make a difference at the end of the day.

As you know, the men and women who go out to do this job don’t question it. They understand there is risk, as I did speaking to Craig’s family. What was very hard, I didn’t have an answer in regard to why the workers’ compensation system in Ontario is denying them benefits and why, at the time when it’s most needed in their family, they have to ponder what would happen should they not get that workers’ compensation.

For his two children and his wife, while he is receiving treatment, something should happen. I think it’s terrible. Firefighters, of course, as you know, recognize that what they are doing is dangerous. At the same time, they sign up for it. We, as a society, recognize we need firefighters. In the absence of them, who will show up to fight the fires and help us with these challenges?

Yet, within the law, there are challenges that these workers face. I do believe with this bill, should it pass in the Senate and become law, we can certainly accelerate the efforts of the federal government in playing a leading role in bringing all of the elements and provincial and territorial governments together to carry out the objective of the bill.

Thank you.

Honourable senators, I rise to speak in support of Bill C-224. I want to thank Senator Yussuff for sponsoring the bill and for your helpful and fulsome remarks.

Across this country, 32,000 firefighters and 100,000 volunteer firefighters play a critical role in keeping us and our communities safe. Canadians respect firefighters. We appreciate the work they do, work that is both essential and dangerous.

When firefighters respond to a call, they know they can face immediate dangers. They know there can be physical hazards each and every time they enter a burning building. A roof can fall down, a floor might give away and so on.

There are also a number of other less immediate dangers that firefighters face when they respond to a fire. As Senator Yussuff told us, and as we know, some household products become very dangerous when they burn. That means that firefighters can be exposed to toxic substances, such as potentially harmful flame retardants in upholstered furniture, mattresses or electronic devices, whenever they respond to a fire.

We know that chemical flame retardants can save lives by slowing the ignition and the spread of fire, but they might and do also cause harmful health effects, such as cancer, when they are burned and inhaled.

While this exposure tends to be rare or limited for most citizens, they can become more prevalent among firefighters. The reality is that firefighters are more likely to develop cancer and, sadly, to die from cancer as a result of these exposures. This is true for almost all types of cancers, colleagues, but it is particularly so for digestive, oral, respiratory and urinary cancers.

There is also emerging research that shows that women and racialized firefighters suffer an even higher risk of cancer incidence and cancer mortality.

Colleagues, cancer represents 86% of occupational fatality claims among firefighters in Canada. These unfortunate statistics do not only apply to firefighters in Canada. Allusion was made by Senator Yussuff to the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer. Last July, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which is the specialized cancer agency of the World Health Organization, classified the occupational exposure that firefighters experience as carcinogenic to humans. In recognition of these realities, the International Association of Fire Fighters has designated the month of January as Fire Fighter Cancer Awareness Month.

The Government of Canada is committed to protecting firefighters and has put into place several measures to support our firefighters across this country. For firefighters and other first responders who have died because of their job-related duties, the Government of Canada supports their families through the Memorial Grant Program. Through this program, their families receive a federal tax-free payment of up to $300,000.

The government also developed a federal action plan to protect firefighters from harmful chemicals that are released during household fires. Announced in 2021, the action plan focuses on chemical flame retardants found, as I mentioned a moment ago, in many household items, including upholstered furniture and electronics, to name but two.

Significant progress is being made to address harmful chemical flame retardants and to support the development and the use of safer alternatives.

As well, the Government of Canada makes significant investments in cancer prevention and research, and this includes research on firefighting and its links to cancer. Between 2015 and 2020, the government invested approximately $927 million in cancer research through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

The Government of Canada also supports the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer and CARcinogen EXposure Canada, an institute that tracks occupational and environmental carcinogen exposure in the workplace.

Colleagues, Bill C-224 calls on the Minister of Health to develop a national framework that raises awareness of cancers linked to firefighting and supports improved access for firefighters to cancer prevention and treatment.

As Senator Yussuff outlines, the bill before us today essentially has three parts: First, supporting improved access for firefighters to cancer prevention and treatment; second, designating the month of January as Fire Fighter Cancer Awareness Month; and, finally, setting out new reporting requirements on the effectiveness of the framework, including a report to be tabled in Parliament.

This bill will set out a common framework to guide future government actions building on the work already under way. The framework will be based on engagement and it will serve as an opportunity to exchange information and best practices between stakeholders and the many jurisdictions implicated in this issue.

Through these actions, the Government of Canada aims to raise awareness and share best practices between stakeholders and jurisdictions to ensure that Canadian firefighters, regardless of where they live or their postal code, receive the very best prevention and treatment possible.

The Government of Canada fully supports Bill C-224 so that we can respect and continue to foster our relationships with the provinces and the territories while strengthening the work we do to protect our firefighters.

Through a national framework, the Government of Canada will continue to take action on firefighters and cancer, with the goal of improving access for firefighters to cancer prevention and treatment, as well as explaining and supporting research on the link between firefighting and certain types of cancer. That includes promoting data collection on the prevention and treatment of cancers linked to firefighting, promoting information and knowledge sharing, including training, education and guidance needs across Canada, making recommendations for regular cancer screening for firefighters in Canada and preparing a summary of standards that recognize cancers linked to firefighting as occupational diseases.

The government will also designate and promote January as Fire Fighter Cancer Awareness Month. Colleagues, awareness is a key tool that we need to leverage to all stakeholders — from firefighters themselves to health care professionals in Canada — so that all are more aware of this important issue.

In closing, I’d like to once again thank Senator Yussuff, who sponsored this bill, and Senator Wells, the bill’s critic.

Through a national framework, the Government of Canada will improve our understanding of the link between firefighting and cancer and will adopt a more proactive approach to preventing cancer among firefighters.

This government will work closely with the provinces, territories, Indigenous groups, scientists, health care professionals and the firefighting community to shape this framework and develop an approach that meets the needs of firefighters across the country.

The government will continue its efforts with all of its partners to better protect firefighters against toxic chemicals and reduce the risk of cancer related to occupational exposure. Canadian firefighters deserve nothing less.