Concern over benefits for firefighters who develop cancer has prompted two firefighters to leave the Wellesley Fire Department in the past week, and more could be on their way out.
The firefighters’ concerns don’t lie with Wellesley or any other department specifically, but with the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and how it handles cases of firefighters working for multiple departments.
Of Wellesley’s 69 volunteer firefighters, eight are employed full-time with other local fire departments.
At issue is a WSIB ruling saying that if a firefighter is diagnosed with on-the-job cancer, it is tied to the last department for which he worked.
“This approach acknowledges the complexity of determining exposure and causation in long-latency occupational disease,” a WSIB spokesperson tells CTV News in a statement.
In the case of a "double-hatting" firefighter volunteering for a rural department while working for an urban one, the ruling means a veteran firefighter could be denied the higher level of benefits if his last call was with the rural department.
Wellesley Fire Chief Andrew Lillico says he doesn’t agree with the WSIB’s ruling.
“Cancer is probably accumulated over a period of time and not (at) one specific incident,” he says.
Dean Good, president of the Waterloo Professional Firefighters Association, says he’s advising firefighters not to take volunteer jobs in the side to prevent similar situations.
“If they feel they want to serve their community, they may – however, they’re taking the risk that they might have a severe cut in their salary and benefits,” he tells CTV News.
Lillico hopes changes in provincial legislation will allow firefighters diagnosed with cancer to receive higher levels of benefits – which in turn will allow Wellesley and other rural fire departments to retain veteran firefighters offering their services.
“The full-time firefighters are a great benefit to the municipality as volunteers,” he says.
A meeting is being held later this week to give Wellesley firefighters more information about the issue – after which some of them may decide whether or not to keep volunteering.
