‘It weighs on you’: Ontario wildland firefighters being overworked due to lack of resources, union says


The union that represents the forest firefighters of Ontario says that they are working long hours that are contributing to the “fatigue” and is asking for an increase in funds to address the lack of resources.

“Historically, Ontario had around 180 crews of four people,” said Noah Freedman, leader of the crew of forest fires in the northwest of Ontario and vice president of the 703 premises of the employee union of the Public Service of Ontario (OPSEU).

“That is not counting all the changes,” he said. “Things are getting hotter, seasons are becoming longer, a little drier.

“While we should look for staff more firefighters, and have more bombers and water pilots and all our incredible support staff we need more, we only go in the other direction at this time.”

Freedman said the union has not been able to confirm the exact number of crews that currently operate; Last year, there were 143.

“To be honest, it weighs you,” Freedman said. “There is a lot of fatigue in this work. And as summers advance and fires become more intense with heat, our fatigue does so. And then there is a bad decision making because people simply do not rest.”

Freedman, for example, first deployed in the region to combat forest fires at the end of April. When he spoke with CBC News on Wednesday, he had just completed his third 19 -day rotation (two days off between periods).

The province is also pilots of short water bombers.

Freedman said that three ontarium water bombers are based on any time due to the lack of pilots.

“We are going to a fire, it is too large for a crew or even two crews to drive,” he said. “There are no water bombers available because they are busy or do not have enough, so everyone is pushing not only outside their comfort zone, but of their traditional training.

“As resources decrease, you simply begin to enter that mentality of how, ok, well, we have to find a way to make this work. ‘And the more we do that, the more we push those limits, especially with the lack of experience we have, it is when errors begin to happen.”

Freedman said the current budget for the Ontario Forest Fire Program is $ 130 million.

“It can sound like a lot of money for people, but to be honest, in a program with so many planes and personal … that covers a region of wild fire in the size of the size of France, $ 130 million only keeps the lights on,” he said. “To put it in perspective, [Premier] Doug Ford spent $ 103 million in commercials last year.

We must really start thinking about proactively financing the program so that we can buy things before needing them, whether planes or even paying our more pilots so that we can fly the water bombers we have, much less buy new ones.– Noah Freedman, leader of the Forest Fire Crew, Vice President of Local Union

“We really need to begin to proactively finance the program so that we can buy things before needing them, whether planes or even paying our pilots so that we can fly the water bombers we have, and much less buy new ones.”

Freedman said the union would like to see the increased budget to $ 300 million, and add that the program is usually above the budget, with between $ 200 million and $ 250 million in expenses.

That, he said, is all reactionary expense, not a proactive expense.

Contacted by CBC News for comments, a spokesman for the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) said in an email that the province has increased investments in the fire management program in Wildland by 92 percent since 2018.

The reclassification problem

Another outstanding problem is the impulse of the union for forest firefighters to be reclassified as firefighters, instead of resource technicians, which would allow them to receive higher wages and better benefits.

Last month, MNR spokeswoman Emily McLaughlin said in an email that “reclassification work has been completed and that the government has been waiting for OPSEU to firm the agreement since the beginning of April. We are prepared to implement the reclassification changes immediately.”

However, Freedman said the situation is more complicated.

“The way of saying this is that the government found a very, very intelligent escape so they can say essentially: ‘Look, we are reclassing firefighters, we did, it is all they wanted.’ But it is not absolutely,” he said.

“All they have done is to change the name of our work title and give us, I think it is like an increase of $ 3 per hour. And people cannot do a career in this work with an increase of $ 3 per hour given how many problems we have.”

MPP raises the crew leader ‘Safety Problem’

Thunder Bay-Superior North NDP MPP Lise Vaugeois said the province has eliminated many of the firefighters of forest firefighters full-time, instead of hiring workers for the fire season.

That, he said, means that firefighters cannot obtain the necessary experience to be crew leaders.

“My first conversation with a wild life firefighter shortly after being chosen, he told me at that time, five to seven years of experience are needed to become a crew leader,” Vaugeois said. “They do not have enough experienced crew leaders.

“You will have people, university students who do these works, or university students or whatever, young people, and may have returned for two or three years,” he said. “That is not enough to be a crew leader, but they will be pushed to those positions, whether they are ready for them or not. And that is a very serious security problem.”

A CL-415 water bomber is shown in Quebec in this file photo. In Ontario, three water bombers are based on any time due to the lack of pilots, says a union representative. (Patrick Doyle/The Canadian Press)

Freedman said the experience is important in fighting forest fires.

“The average age [of firefighters]Let’s say these days, it’s like 21, “he said.” There is much less critical thinking capacity there. It is not that they are not brilliant young people, but there is much lack of experience in life in terms of decision making. “

The examples, Freedman said, include: “Not being aware of how trees necessarily fall, or what trees die from top to bottom and have huge pieces of material that falls around them.”

Vaugeois echoed the calls to increase the financing of the Wildland Fire Program.

“In some aspects, it is priceless,” he said. “We know that there is no limit to the budget for emergency fire fighting.

“Then, for example, if they need to pay to bring people from Mexico, or from Quebec or somewhere else, the money will be there for that. What we do not see is the money invested in the real people who are the Ontario fire fighting team.

“Nor do we see him invested in the team they need.”



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