Looking to help with volunteer firefighter recruitment, MPs call for larger tax credits

TWO LOCAL MPS ARE JOINING the call to give larger tax credits to volunteer firefighters in an effort to boost recruitment efforts.

In a letter to Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, Kitchener-Conestoga MP Tim Louis and Cambridge MP Bryan

May last week requested the 2024 federal budget include upping the tax credit to $10,000 per year from the current $3,000.

“In the cities, you’ve got paid firefighters, but in our communities and our townships, its volunteers, and they’re the ones that are balancing their regular jobs with firefighting, keeping us safe and [volunteering]here at all of the events in our community,” said Louis in an interview.

Recruitment of volunteers in the townships is a challenge, said Wellesley fire chief Paul Redman. This is especially true outside of Wellesley village, where the department gets 25-30 applications every time they recruit.

“It’s always a little more of a struggle for us in St. Clements and Linwood. Often, we might get one or two applications, and sometimes we get applications from people that don’t even live in the township. They live in the city or something like that. And so for those stations, it’s definitely a chore,” he said.

Having volunteers at these stations is critical given the size of the coverage area, which includes Line 86 from Wallenstein to Dorking, Redman explained.

The goal is to have volunteers who not only live near their coverage area, but who work nearby in order to provide daytime response to emergency calls.

“We wouldn’t really benefit from a central station somewhere because it’d be so far from the north end of our township. There’s not a lot of work there, so people leave the area during the day for work or at night. We really count on people like our shift workers, or the people that are there during the day.”

The Woolwich Fire Department faces similar challenges, says chief Dennis Aldous.

“It all depends on... what community you are looking for. Somewhere like Elmira might be easier than Maryhill, as an example,” he said.

“[In] Maryhill, there’s not much industry in that area, so people are commuting to go someplace [to respond to a call].”

In Wellesley they lose some seven or eight volunteers per year and around that half of their 65 total firefighters are in their first or second year. That means they are limited in what they can do.

“They don’t have their licenses to drive the trucks yet so they can’t work the pumps just because it’s a graduated system,” Redmond explained.

The tax credit is part of a private member’s bill introduced by Gord Johns, NDP MP for Courtenay—Alberni, BC. However, Louis noted that the lengthy parliamentary procedure means the bill could take up to a year to pass, which is why he and May are asking for the change to be made in next month’s budget.

“I don’t think people are fighting this one. I think this one has some unanimous support. I think people in all parties understand the importance,” he said.

In order to qualify for the credit, volunteers need to have at least 200 hours of service, with Redman noting it is rare for a Wellesley volunteer to reach that threshold.

“We’re not hitting that with every firefighter. Sometimes we usually get one or two,” he said, adding that might require attending 20 training nights a year. “That’s a lot of hours when you start tallying that up.”

With increased fires and flooding, there will likely be an increase in the number of hours worked by volunteers, Louis said.

“I would be very happy if our firefighters sat at home with their families instead of out in an emergency situation. The fact is that they’re getting busier because of climate change or flooding is an issue, but I’d certainly be happy if they weren’t busy, and imagine so would they.”